The beginnings of representational play were examined in 16 visually impaired children (18-38 months). Nine children demonstrated some symbolic acts at a mean age significantly earlier than the literature suggests. Presence of symbolic acts was significantly related to use of the word "no," two-word combinations, and general sensorimotor skills.…

Three experiments examined the relation between language acquisition and other symbolic abilities in 18- and 26-month-olds. Found that 18-month-olds spontaneously interpreted gestures, like words, as names for object categories. At 26 months, they spontaneously interpreted words as names and novel gestures as names only when given additional…

Discusses the findings of a recent study concerning the ability of an infant to see an object as a symbol. Reports that infants between 36 and 39 months old significantly outperformed informed infants between 30 and 32 months old on a symbolic task. (TW)

Reports on a study in which the symbolic relation between a scale model and the larger space that it represents was displayed by two groups of young children. Three-year-old children outperformed 2.5-year-olds in finding an object in a room after seeing an analogous object hidden in a model. (TW)

Explores the relations among combinatorial capacities in language, symbolic play, blockbuilding, and nonsemantic action sequences within a sample of 18- to 24-month-old children, as well as assessing the developmental level of a selected subset of concepts. (HOD)

The relationship between symbolic play and early language was studied in 40 girls and 39 boys between 12 and 24 months of age. Subjects were individually tested during two or three sessions by a female experimenter in a day care center in Jyvaskyla, Finland. Children's symbolic play level was assessed according to a developmental structure of five…

This collection of conference abstracts focuses on new directions for research on mental representation and early language development. One page summaries are provided on the following topics: Mental Representation and Initial Language Learning, by Lorraine M. Nicolich; Critical Issues in Language and Cognitive Development, by Roberta Corrigan;…

Proposes that cognitive developmental stages can be accounted for in terms of information processing factors which limit the highest level of cognitive system which children can attain at any given age. Delineates four progressively more complex levels of cognitive mediation of the environment. Two experiments which support the developmental model…

Play behaviors of infants who had normal hearing or were deaf were observed during free play with their mothers, at ages 9, 12, and 18 months. Participants included 15 dyads of children who were deaf and mothers who were not, 15 dyads of children and mothers who were both deaf, and 15 dyads of children and mothers who both had normal hearing.…

This report reviews major theoretical and empirical studies concerning the process of creativity and the skills involved in creating art. Part I describes process studies with adult subjects engaged in activities such as poetry writing, editing, and critiquing a poem. Ten amateur and ten professional poets were subjects. These studies analyzed the…