Seeing the Positives in Destructive Play

We can all feel a little bit stuck at times and wonder why learning isn't happening for our children. Perhaps your environment feels chaotic and your children just flit from one area to another. Or perhaps nothing you put out seems to create high levels of interest and involvement. You're going round in circles setting up provocations around an interest you think a child has but it just doesn't grab them. Worse still you feel the only play going on is destructive and the children are not getting anything from it. 

Sometimes you just need an opportunity to stand back and evaluate what's happening with some handy tips to move learning on.

One of the wonderful approaches to life that the Scandinavians tend to have is turning a negative into a positive. For example if its dark and cold outside they can think well what opportunity does that give me? It gives me some quiet time to get cosy and read a book by the fire.

We can take this approach when it comes to considering behaviour too. Instead of seeing a behaviour or type of play as negative think what is this telling me?

When we observe play and really see what’s going on there we can also tune into what is really grabbing the child’s attention at this particular moment then we can offer more opportunities to explore this. 

Lets look at destructive play as an example…something that we usually see as a negative…what are the positives here?

Destructive Play

If you have a baby It’s easy to feel frustrated when they tip all their food out of their bowl or throw things from their highchair. But destructive play actually teaches them important lessons about cause and effect, gravity physics, and how the world works. 

What can we do?

If you notice a baby throwing food on the floor you can try giving them a more practical alternative. Provide them with blocks to knock down, containers to take lids off and dried pasta to explore tipping out of a pot into a larger tray. 

We can work with and alongside the baby to narrate the processes their involved in and teacher them new language and vocabulary.

With older children who may be showing destructive type play we can start to turn this around and consider why it might be happening. Are they bored, frustrated or even overwhelmed?

Children also learn through experience so even though you might ask them not to do something (maybe even something dangerous) they will do it anyway as they have to experience it themselves to understand it.

There is also a growing body of research that shows the emotions and thoughts children are processing can be seen within their schematic play. For instance, a child that may be feeling disconnected from mum when they start nursery after spending every day together may be the child knocking towers down. That’s their way of processing what they’re going through. Ask yourself is the child working through any big feelings at the moment?

We can also take our knowledge on schematic behaviour to unpick what the big idea is behind the play we see going on. Turning round the idea of negative actions and learning not happening to actually see it's part of their schematic play. Let's look at the container schema for example.

Container Schema

It might look like a child climbing into the water tray or sensory activity with their whole body. The containing schema occurs when children place objects into a container of some form. For instance they may put all of their crayons into an empty bag, or inside a large box. 

It could look like toilet roll being filled into the sink! If the fascination is more around the blocking side of things then this is more trajectory and you could support this with some dam building.

It could be them sitting their whole body in a container full of water… ie your water table! 

For more support and guidance on how to support children when you feel as though learning isn't happening check out my latest training When Learning Doesn't Happen.