Two themes emerge from studies of the development of symbolic understanding; that development proceeds through multiple levels of understanding prior to full and reflective knowledge of the representational function of pictorial symbols, and that development is founded upon individual cognitive and social cognitive proclivities as well as on supports from others in the social group. The classical theoretical antecedents to this contemporary perspective on the development of pictorial symbol understanding are briefly reviewed here and followed by evidence from contemporary research that provides support for these claims in the domain of pictorial symbol understanding and its development.