Enclosing Schema

This schema is similar to enveloping but has a different flavour to it. This one is about creating boundaries. Putting toy animals inside fences, building parking garages for cars out of magnetic tiles, and drawing circle after circle after circle.

Enclosing is the precursor to skills needed for writing and reading and maths. It is creating a container in a discrete space, and understanding that the things outside of that space are separate. We need to understand this in order to understand how each letter is different to the others, that letters are different to words, words are different from sentences, and so on. We also need to do this in order to count with one to one correspondence, add up, and to use partitioning in maths. We need to be able to form the strokes needed to create a mark that is recognisable to others and conveys meaning - writing words.

Like every other schema, this is something that happens naturally and children will gravitate to the kinds of activities that will further this area when they are developmentally ready. But if you know your child is working on this schema, you can help them with it.

Some of the ways we further the Enclosing Schema at Discovery Time include