The development and implication of an observation tool for recognizing symbolic acts in infants between 6 and 18 months old

ABSTRACT

This study reports on the development of new motor and behavioural indicators for recognizing symbolic acts among infants. Following five infants between the ages of 6 and 18 months and their ability to use an object in novel way yielded four levels of action, based on the number of objects and actions combined in each symbolic act. Employing Baldwin et al.’s [(2001). Infants parse dynamic action. Child Development, 72(3), 708–717] method for verifying that the infants intend to use an object in novel way yielded behavioural indexes that enabled verifying infants’ intention from the pre-beginning phase for both complete and partial acts. Following an extensive range of subjects (N = 14; from six to eighteen months), reveals that first symbolic acts are visible at six months of age and until 15 months of age infants preform mainly single-object play. The discussion addresses symbolic acts’ developmental pattern and emphasizes the dynamic fashion that symbolic play may investigate with the current research tool.

KEYWORDS:

• Symbolic play
• intention
• single-object play
• single play sequences
• multi-object play
• multi-objects sequences

Acknowledgements

This paper is based in part on a doctoral research study conducted at the School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, 2008, and supervised by Dr R. Glaubman. The author is grateful to Prof. Gil Diesendruck and Prof. Ronny Geva for their advice during the pilot stages of this work. She is grateful to the parents and babies who participated in this longitudinal study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Edna Orr completed her PhD. Degree in early childhood Education from Bar-Ilan University, Isreal in 2008. The PhD thesis focus on early symbolic skills among babies. She is an active researcher in areas such as: resource allocation among babies, motor and cognitive development and the role of home environment in child development. She is a fellow at The Developmental Neuropsychology Lab, Bar Ilan University, Israel. Currently, teaching in the early childhood development department and serve as M. Ed Thesis supervisor in “Gordon academic college of education”, Haifa. She deepen the knowledge pertains to babies' development in writing and teaching at MOFET Institute, Consortium of Israeli Colleges of Education, Tel-Aviv.