Concurrent and Longitudinal Relationships Between Development in Graphic,Language and Symbolic Play Domains from the Fourth to the Fifth Year |
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Authors: | Julie Kirkham Andrew Stewart Evan Kidd |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, University of Chester, , Chester, UK;2. Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, , Manchester, UK;3. Department of Psychological Sciences, Australian National University, , Canberra, Australia |
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Abstract: | This research investigated the developing inter‐relationships between language, graphic symbolism and symbolic play both concurrently and longitudinally from the fourth to the fifth year of childhood. Sixty children (n = 60) aged between 3 and 4 years completed multiple assessments of language and assessments of graphic symbolism, symbolic play and non‐verbal intelligence. A year later, 31 children (n = 31) were re‐tested using the same assessments. The findings revealed that skills within each symbolic domain were inter‐related during the fourth year, appearing to develop in a domain‐general type fashion based upon a common underlying symbolic mechanism. However, between the fourth and the fifth years, only language had predictive validity, suggesting a shift towards the verbal mediation of symbolic play and graphic symbolism as language becomes progressively internalized (Vygotsky, 1962, 1978). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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Keywords: | graphic symbolism symbolic play language |
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