Symbolic Play in Normal and Language-Impaired Children
- 1 September 1984
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Speech Language Hearing Association in Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research
- Vol. 27 (3), 424-429
- https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.2703.424
Abstract
The symbolic play of 15 normally developing (CA, 16–22 months) and 15 language-impaired children (CA, 32–49 months), whose productive language skills were at the single-word utterance level, was compared. Symbolic play was assessed formally through the Symbolic Play Test and informally through the observation of spontaneous play. The language-impaired children were found to be developmentally advanced when compared to the language-matched normal children in the level and direction of their symbolic play. Relative to age norms, however, the language-impaired children evidenced deficits in symbolic play. Thus, their linguistic and symbolic play abilities were not equally impaired. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the relationship between symbolic play and language and for the nature of specific language impairment.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
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- Early Lexical Acquisition in Children with Specific Language ImpairmentJournal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 1982
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- PLAY, LANGUAGE AND REASONING IN SUBNORMAL CHILDRENJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1966