DC Early Learning Collaborative

Does your toddler wander the house draped in a blanket? Wear a laundry basket as a hat? Love to play under the kitchen table? Toddler behaviors can sometimes seem a little random. But their play actually follows a lot of common patterns, a knowledge of which can make parenting far less puzzling. This week I’ve been unpacking the 9 toddler play schemas. These two little cuties are involved in the sixth in our series: enveloping. As its name implies, enveloping involves covering or hiding oneself (and objects). Wondering where your car keys have gone? Keep them out of reach or they may fall victim to the enveloping schema! Earlier this week we talked about a similar pattern: enclosure. While the two are often related, think of enclosure as creating a border around something, while enveloping involves covering or hiding it altogether. (Note that because toddlers have difficulty considering the perspectives of others, their attempts at hiding often don’t provide full coverage, but obscure mainly their own heads/eyes… Remember the toddler motto: “If I can’t see you, you can’t see me!”) Enveloping becomes especially fascinating to your toddler as they develop a sense of object permanence (an understanding that things continue to exist even when you can’t see them). You can support enveloping play with light blankets and scarves, dress up clothes, hats, sunglasses… and boxes with removable lids. These happy little ones were shared to YT by sarnold78.