Creative Ireland project

My World

Pattern can be invitation, material and expression. This is a distinct creative strand within the wider Noticing Maths world.

A place to notice without demanding an answer.

My World recognises participation through choice, movement, repetition, arrangement, pause, refusal and return. A child does not have to explain a pattern in words for that engagement to be taken seriously.

Pattern is offered as something to think with, not a task to complete. What matters is whether a child’s choices are noticed and allowed to influence what happens next.

Students can build possibilities. Children retain ownership of meaning.

Stars

Cycles · constellations · coordinates · make your own sky.

Leaves

Symmetry · veins · branching · colour · repetition.

Stones

Sequence · grouping · paths · circles · balance.

Water

Ripple · reflection · rhythm · wave · return.

Growing

Seed · spiral · branching · seasonal change.

Light & shadow

Rotation · silhouette · movement · change.

Lundy Model · voice beyond words

Voice matters when it has influence.

My World adapts the Lundy Model for non-speaking children by designing for communication that may appear through movement, spatial choice, repetition, pause and return rather than speech alone.

01

Space

Sensory-safe, predictable environments with room to pause, withdraw, leave and return.

02

Voice

Arrangement, movement, repetition, pause, refusal and return can all carry meaning.

03

Audience

Adults pay sustained attention without requiring speech or imposing a preferred interpretation.

04

Influence

What is noticed changes the materials, spaces or possibilities offered in later sessions.

We design for return.

Repeated, unhurried encounters allow familiarity and trust to develop over time. Return is not a failure to move on; it can be communication, regulation, preference and agency.

What we protect

No requirement to perform, explain or produce a correct pattern. What is chosen, repeated, rejected or changed can inform what happens next.

For student designers

Make something another person can think with. Offer possibility rather than instruction. Do not interpret another person’s meaning for them.

The connection

Attention can come before measurement.

Not every pattern needs to become a calculation. Sometimes the first responsibility is to notice what a person returns to, make room for that choice, and let it change what happens next.