Figure 4.3 Robert’s noticeEarly writing and links with schemas
In the previous chapter we saw how Aaron’s schemas or attractor systemshelped him
focus on certain aspects within his environment and actions. Threaded through the
observations of his schemas are notes of his developing interest in writing and
mark-making.
While sharing a book, Aaron asked ‘how does writing go?’ The following day when
writing, Aaron used some numerals he knew (rather than his own marks, letter-like
symbols or letters). Soon he was observed to use a capital ‘A’ and subsequently ‘A’ and
‘H’ to represent his own meaning when writing. Some of his schema explorations
during this period focused on comparison of lengths, verticaland horizontal lines, move-
ment up and down andconnection. He was also interested in triangles and diamonds
which share some features with the written letter ‘A’. A later interest was zigzags, which
when represented with a pen on paper mimicked both the movement of an adult’s
hand as it writes and the ‘joined-up’ writing itself. Aaron’s interest in zigzags also devel-
oped the use of oblique lines,movement up and downand connection. This interest coin-
cided with his increased use of ‘M’, ‘N’, ‘V’ and ‘W’ in his writing of the time.
Figure 3.7 (p. 51) suggests a strong relationship between schemas (explored over
the nineteen days of observations represented here) and writing. At the centre (in
bold numerals) are eight observations of occasions on which Aaron explored writing
and written numerals (included in this chart since it was a dominant personal inter-
est during this period). Clustering around this interest are observations of schemas
that may have served to support his developing understanding of writing and
written numerals. Rotation, spirals and enclosureare evident in letters such as ‘o’, ‘a’,Early writing, early mathematics 618657part 1b.qxd 04/07/2006 18:10 Page 61