Children with congenital deafblindness are a population of learners who may need intervention in order to develop symbolic understanding. They experience a combination of vision and hearing impairments that can affect how they make sense of the world, develop relationships, and understand symbols. In this article, the author reviewed a…

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of an instructional procedure called "aided language modeling" (ALM) on symbol comprehension and expression in 2 preschool children with autism who used few words functionally. ALM consists of engaging the child in interactive play activities and providing models of use of…

An experimental, intervention group of 4 children with moderate mental retardation received 10 therapy sessions focused on symbolic play development. Compared to a nonintervention group, the experimental children, aged 5-10, demonstrated increased amounts of symbolic play as well as higher levels of symbolism in their play behavior. (Author/JDD)

An intervention approach emphasizing development of symbolic thought, communication, and interpersonal relationships was implemented with 26 children (ages 2-6) with pervasive developmental disorder, or severe emotional handicaps. Ss demonstrated significant changes in several targeted developmental areas, including cognition, perceptual/fine…

This article discusses communicative intent in persons with severe intellectual disability in the context of intervention studies reporting the acquisition of graphic symbol use. The article reviews communicative intent as formulated within psycholinguistic models of language acquisition which emphasize pragmatics and the functions of…