ABSTRACT
I first heard about schemas after I had been teaching and working in early years for several years. I became a Foundation Stage Adviser for the North Somerset council and worked with a wonderful lady called Fran Kirkwood. She had been teaching students about schemas for years and was surprised that I had not come across them! It felt like I was viewing children in a whole new way and provided an explanation for some of their behaviour I had thought was weird and wonderful! Once I began delivering training and professional development for early years educators, I was amazed at how few had heard of schemas, and this led me to write my book, Observing and Developing Schematic Behaviour in Young Children (Grimmer, 2017). I hoped this would be an accessible read and help educators to reinterpret behaviour in the light of schemas. I was inspired by the schematic play of my own children whilst writing; however, at the time, I was unaware that they were on the autistic spectrum.
