This paper reports on an investigation into the potential effects of the Symbol Literacy Approach (SLA) on the metaphorical reasoning of 25 five-year-old children attending a Maltese Catholic School. This was implemented via six pedagogical activities comprising the 'St. Michael Project', which sought to prompt the children's symbolic engagement…

The aim of this study was to examine how early symbolic forms (and their associated communicative functions) are related to change in communication among a sample of 12 young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who produced two or fewer spoken words ("M" age = 28.75 months; 11 male, 1 female). Parents reported on children's…

Children with Down syndrome (DS) and cerebral palsy (CP) are at risk of remaining pre-symbolic in their communication and play for prolonged periods. The aim of this study was to explore the early communication and play of children with DS and with CP who communicated at the pre-symbolic stage, and to determine the association between these…

This review of literature presents research about young children's (ages 2-8) early experiences with comprehension. Using a theoretical framework for emergent comprehension, the review demonstrates how each research study contributes to a holistic theory of emergent comprehension. Influences on emergent comprehension such as children's…

This paper explores ideas of language as a cognitive tool and the role of gesture in expressing children's interests and levels of knowledge. The context is a group of three-year-old children who participate in a weekly music session with a trained musician. The authors present drawings from photographs of children's hands and interpret them,…

Including gesture in instruction facilitates learning. Why? One possibility is that gesture points out objects in the immediate context and thus helps ground the words learners hear in the world they see. Previous work on gesture's role in instruction has used gestures that either point to or trace paths on objects, thus providing support for this…

Examines recent research on the development of symbols by hearing impaired children. Suggests that the lack of experience with symbols in the hearing domain does not impede symbolic development in other sensory domains. Deaf children do not appear to be impaired compared to normally hearing children in terms of symbolic systems serving…

The study investigated whether significant differences existed among normally developing 3-year-old children in transparency and in the learning of symbols from three different graphic symbol systems (Blissymbols, Picture Communication System, and Picsyms) frequently used with augmentative communication devices for communication disordered…

Use of logographic symbol systems with severely communication-disordered children led to a comparison of the relative ease of learning logographs from the Bliss and Rebus symbol systems with 32 normal preschoolers. Results indicated that Rebus symbols were recalled with significantly greater accuracy than Bliss symbols. (Author/DB)

The fundamental goal of music-literacy instruction is to connect sound to symbol. An essential aspect of this process is audiation. Literate musicians make accurate matches between what they audiate and what they visualize. They establish this link by interacting with the symbolic language of music in both directions: translating notation into…

Study 1 explored associations between multiple measures of language and symbolic gesture development across ages 3 and 4; Study 2 measured more finely which aspects of language relate to the symbolic representation of actions with objects, and explored associations between symbolic gesture and general intellectual ability. Results showed…

Results of this study suggest the feasibility of using concepts from studies of spoken language for experimental studies of graphic performance. (Authors)

Discusses research results that demonstrate that nonlinguistic symbolic deficits of language-impaired children may actually reflect resource allocation constraints and cross-modality deficits. Discusses implications of studies that contrast symbolic action development in normally developing children with that in children with specific language…

Explores how visual (pictorial) and verbal (linguistic) systems work together and influence each other as young children create symbol systems. Finds that, for young children, color plays a key role in communicating messages. Shows how art and writing (especially color and light) influence each other in children's literacy development. (SR)

Offers an organizational perspective designed to illuminate processes of symbolic development in both normal and abnormal populations. Focuses on the symbolic system of Down Syndrome children. Data support the claim that the symbolic system of these children is intact. (RWB)