Nursery World - A Unique Child: Child Development

In an extract from her book on the subject, Tamsin Grimmer explains ‘core and radial schema’ and its relevance to the early years

Core and radial is an interesting schema to observe as it combines the straight movements of trajectory schemas and the circular movements of rotation schemas. The word core here means centre, and radial means arranged in lines from a central point.

Think about how children typically draw a sun shining. They tend to draw a circle and then add lines or rays sticking outwards, fairly evenly spaced around the circumference of the circle. Or imagine the spokes on a bicycle tyre – this is another typical core and radial image.

These ‘sun’ and ‘spokes’ shapes can also be found in our daily lives if we imagine how we might cut a pizza or cake, or picture the sun icon being used as an emoticon or to indicate sunshine. In addition, any structure where we see straight lines or poles fanning out from a round nut or screw head depicts this core and radial image.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting Nursery World and making use of our archive of more than 35,000 expert features, subject guides, case studies and policy updates. Why not register today and enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included