This study empirically evaluated a classification schema based on symbolic communication level use with students with significant cognitive disabilities. Ninety-five teachers of students with significant disabilities rated students' level of performance on 10 academic tasks. Cluster analysis suggested a range of two to four clusters solutions.…

This article profiles Christopher Benfey, 53--an art critic for Slate, a poet, and a prolific literary essayist for such venues as "The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic," and "The New York Review of Books." His latest book, "A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily…

The purpose of this study was to explore the predictive relationship between the level of symbolic representation in preschoolers' sociodramatic play and reading and mathematics abilities and rate of growth in early elementary grades for children with and without disabilities. The relationship of three aspects of sociodramatic play--symbolic…

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…

Explicit code and comprehension instruction is important for English learners (ELs), and several key findings from research on young ELs learning to read initially in English can offer guidelines for developing effective code-based instruction for these children. The authors of this column address comprehension instruction for ELs, suggesting…

Media use gender imagery to define "the cultural representations of gender and embodiment of gender in symbolic language and artistic productions that reproduce and legitimate gender statuses." The heroines and heroes in fairytales present images of women being young, beautiful, passive, and helpless while men are portrayed as strong, powerful,…

Secondary student performance in the domain of reading has been a cause for concern for educators and scholars alike. To understand the demands placed on students we must first understand how reading changes within content areas and across grades. Furthermore, we must have an understanding of teachers' conceptions about the texts they teach. This…

Before the advent of symbolism, i.e. before the end of the 16th Century, algebraic calculations were made using natural language. Through a kind of metaphorical process, a few terms from everyday life (e.g. thing, root) acquired a technical mathematical status and constituted the specialized language of algebra. The introduction of letters and…

A TECHNIQUE OF ANALYSIS OF SYMBOLISM IS PRESENTED, BASED ON THE IDEA THAT WORDS WHICH APPEAR IN CLOSE ASSOCIATION IN THE SPEECH OR WRITING OF AN INDIVIDUAL ARE PSYCHOLOGICALLY CLOSELY RELATED. THE LATENT MEANING, OR SYMBOLISM, OF A WORD IS ELUCIDATED BY SHOWING HOW CLOSE IT IS, CONCEPTUALLY, TO OTHER SELECTED WORDS OR THEMES IN THE INDIVIDUAL'S…

Information on two widely used logographic-type systems, Rebus and Blyssymbolics, is compiled. Internal characteristics of the systems are analyzed and research on the systems is reviewed. Decision-making variables in selecting a particular system are addressed, applying information from knowledge of the internal characteristics and from research…

The author briefly relatestwo kinds of literacy, the visual and the verbal." (Author/AA)

Language involves the use of symbols in the form of words or signs that allow people to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and needs. Even without formal language, many children who are deaf-blind learn to communicate with gestures and object or picture symbols. Symbolic expression makes it possible to express thoughts and feelings about the…

Reexamines the concept of semiotic modeling systems as conceived by members of the Moscow-Tartu School of semiotics of culture. The metaphoric use of the term language in the broad sense equivalent to the modeling system is discussed and qualified. (Author/JL)

Several different theories of semiotics and linguistics are examined. (Text is in French.) (PMP)