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The role of iconicity—the resemblance between a symbol and its referent—in children’s interpretation of symbols has been heavily debated. The present study investigates whether parental engagement in activities that support arbitrary printed symbol interpretation accounts for these individual differences. A correlational design tested 26-28 month old participants’ comprehension of arbitrary pictures as symbols for objects and how it relates to parental behaviors. This study replicated an experimental symbol-learning task and elaborated on it by including a picture-book reading task with the parent and their child, and an original parental questionnaire regarding their support of arbitrary symbol learning. Preliminary results suggest an important link between parental “scaffolding” of symbolic insight and children’s symbol interpretation. These findings support the notion that children’s symbolic abilities are shaped by social and cultural support, particularly from parents.
Traditional theorists have postulated that iconicity eases children’s interpretation of symbols (Werner & Kaplan, 1963; Piaget, 1962). However, recent work challenges this assumption (Namy, 2008; Namy et al., 2004).
In particular, two-year-old children can learn both spoken words and printed symbols despite their arbitrary relationship to their referents.
Previous research (Namy et al., 2004) has found variability across children in their success at learning arbitrary pictorial symbols
Participants
11 Children 26- to 28-months of age and their primary caregiver
-Novel symbol learning task
-Picture book reading task (with caregiver)
-Reading and symbol recognition questionnaire (completed by parent)
-2 pairs of plastic toy replicas, including hammer and cat, telephone and car
-4 black and white clip art drawings of unfamiliar objects printed on index cards.
Reading and Symbol Recognition
Questionnaire—Sample Questions
1 How frequently does your child read alone or with an adult on a weekly basis?
2. Which of the following things do you do with your child when you read to him/her? (Let him turn the pages, finish the sentence, explain the meaning of unknown objects, point to words or letters, etc…
3. Which of the following symbols does your child recognize? (Letters, numbers, stop signs, McDonalds signs, etc…)
Preliminary analyses suggest that parental structure of the learning environment impacts children’s ability to understand that arbitrary printed symbols can be meaningful
Future directions with this study will include analyses of the predicted relationship between parental activities and child performance in an experimental task and a detailed,
fine-grained analysis of parental behavior in an actual reading interaction
This material is based upon work supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute under Grant No.52005873 and by a Research Experience award from the Office of Undergraduate Studies, Emory College
Namy, L.L. (2008) Recognition of iconicity doesn’t come for free. Manuscript in press, Developmental Science.
Namy, L.L., Campbell, A.L., & Tomasello, M. (2004). The changing role of iconicity in non-verbal symbol learning: A U-shaped trajectory in the acquisition of arbitrary gestures. Special Issue of Journal of Cognition and Development, 5, 37-57.
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