What is a Play Schema and How Can it Help Me Support my Baby or Toddler, With Lina Richards

What are the different types of play? On this episode of the Learn With Less podcast, we sat down with Lina Richards, an early childhood educator and family support worker. Lina mentors caregivers serving infants and toddlers as well as providing play experiences for children and their families who have been approved for supportive services via Early Steps. She is the proud mother of twin girls and a military spouse.  We discussed: * Lina’s personal and professional background, and how she came to do the work she’s doing today* Why play looks “different” at different developmental stages* What is a play “schema” and why is it useful for parents and caregivers to understand these?* Lina’s top 3 tips and resources for supporting a young child’s learning through play Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Mudbugs Early Learning Facebook Group, hosted by Lina Richards Learning Through Play: How to Recognize Play Schemas from handmadeplaces.co.uk Raising Human Beings, by Ross W. Greene, Ph.D. The Whole-Brain Child, by Dan Siegel, M.D., and Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D. Connect With Us: Lina: Facebook Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest Text Transcript of This Episode: Ayelet: Today, I am speaking with Lina Richards. Lina is an early childhood educator and family support worker. Lina mentors caregivers serving infants and toddlers, as well as providing play experiences for children and their families who have been approved for supportive services via early steps. She is the proud mother of two twin girls, and a military spouse. Lina, welcome to Learn With Less! We’re so happy to have you here. Lina: Thank you. Happy to be here. Ayelet: Excellent. Well, I’ve asked you today to come onto the show to speak to us about play (one of my favorite subjects), and specifically what is a play schema? But first we want to just hear a little bit about you. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about, you know, how you got into the work that you’re doing? Lina: Well, I’ve had a long, very different career. I don’t tend to stay places very long… So, I went into the military and from there, I always kinda knew I wanted to work with children and families. And so I went into nursing, but that wasn’t my thing. So obviously, I went back to teaching. Once I had my daughters, they were two. I stayed home with them from the time they were one years old to two years old. And then I was like, okay, time for you to go to school and me to go to school. I went back to college and pursued getting a bachelor’s degree that allowed me to work in early c...