Symbolic Play Behaviors and its Relationship with Language and Cognition in Typically Developing Children.

1. Symbolic Play Behaviors and its Relationship with Language and Cognition in Typically Developing Children. Presented by, Devika M R, AIISH ,Mysore

2. INTRODUCTION Play is defined as any voluntary activity engaged for the enjoyment it gives without consideration of the end result (Piaget, 1962). It combines both action and thought (Tassoni & Hucker, 2005).

3. Natural to children Designed by children Spontaneous PLAY Chosen by children Voluntary Features of Play Initiated by children

4. Importance of Play Social interaction Emotional Play as a Platform Language Motor Cognitive

5. Symbolic play (12-36 mths) A type of play which involves acting out a concept as perceived by the performer. It contains rule based play without written lines and with few props. This type of play includes a. Pretentious play b. Representational play c. Enactive play

6. Symbolic play development Develops in an orderly and predictable manner (Piaget, 1962; Mc Cune-Nicolich, 1977; Watson & Fischer, 1977; Bretherton, 1984).

7. Significance of symbolic play Provides the children with a creative outlet, where they have the power to create a fantasy world. Important indicator of a child’s increasing cognitive competence.  Provides a window on the child’s developing knowledge of scripts or event representations. Temporally corresponds to aspects of early language and contributes to language development (Paula, 1983).

8. Relationship between symbolic play and language development Language development and symbolic play tend to proceed in parallel and there is an association between the two. The manipulation of symbols seen in symbolic play and representational abilities is related to the development of language (Bates, Benigni, Camaioni &Volterra, 1979)

9. Figure 1: Hierarchy of symbolic play development and its relationship with language development (Mc Cune,1995)

10. NEED FOR THE STUDY Very few studies have examined children in the age group of 2-3 years. It is important to find what identifying features of a child’s diagnosis puts him/her at risk for demonstrating less sophisticated play behaviors. Observation and assessment of play reveals about the developmental status. Play also provides a functional baseline of the child’s developmental level of language and may provide additional direction for early intervention efforts.

11. However, in the Indian scenario, there are very limited studies relating symbolic play to language development. Moreover, there are no standardized tests for the assessment of symbolic play. Hence there is a pressing need to conduct such studies.

12. To investigate the symbolic play behaviors in typically developing children To examine whether symbolic play development corresponds with the language development and cognitive development. To examine whether symbolic play development corresponds more with the receptive language development or expressive language development

13. METHOD

14. SUBJECTS 10 SUBJECTS 2-3 yrs 5subjects (24-30 months) 5subjects (30-36 months)

15. Age range 1)24- 30 months- 5 participants 30-36 months- 5 participants These subjects were matched for gender, age range, socio economic status and child care history.

16. Tools used: Three-Dimensional Language Acquisition Test (3D-LAT) (Geetha Harlekhar, 1986) The assessment checklist for play skills (Swapna, Jayaram, Prema & Geetha, in progress) Assessment checklist for cognitive skills (Swapna, Jayaram, Prema, Geetha, in progress)

17. WHO Ten-question disability screening checklist (Singhi, Kumar, Malhi & Kumar, 2007) was used to rule out any disability. Ethical procedures was used to select the participants.

18. PROCEDURE

19. Phase 1: Investigation of symbolic play behaviours Phase 2:Assessment of language and cognitive skills.

20. PHASE - 1

21. TWO PLAY SESSIONS TWO PLAY SITUATIONS FREE PLAY STRUCTURED PLAY STANDARD TOY SETS BASKET-A BASKET-B

22. FREE PLAY BASKET -A BASKET-B -two small human figures -small plastic animals -one baby doll, a brush -a comb, kitchen set -chair, table, cot, -a spoon, a cup and saucer -furniture set -large bus -small auto -plate -knife **blocks and sticks -two small blankets, -two little doll house figures -small plastic farm animals -two baby dolls, - stuffed bear -stuffed rabbit - baby bottle - spoon, a plate - brush -pillow - blocks, - jar lid , -quilt **sticks *The two basket design is planned in order to examine test-retest reliability of play behavior

23. STRUCTURED PLAY Set 1: doll, baby bottle, quilt, stick Set 2: stuffed bear, brush, blanket, stick. Set 3: two small human figures, horse, soap, block Set 4: lorry, doll, screwdriver, two blocks, stick. *A stick or a block as an item to be transformed

24. These toys have been selected on the basis of literature support (Rescorla and Goosens, 1992) with suitable modifications for Indian context.

25. FIRST SESSION

26. Free play with basket A Basket -A 10 Min. duration *The mother was seated in the room but was asked not to intervene in the child’s play.

27. Structured play with toy sets STRUCTURED PLAY 5 Min. DURATION 4 SETS OF TOYS Set 1: doll, baby bottle, quilt, stick Set 2: stuffed bear, brush, blanket, stick. Set 3: two small human figures, horse, soap, block Set 4: lorry, doll, screwdriver, two blocks, stick. *A stick or a block as an item to be transformed

28. SECOND SESSION The second session was recorded a week after the initial visit.

29. Free play with basket B: 10 Min. Duration Basket -B The same procedure as in session 1 will be carried out.

30. Structured play with toy sets INSTRUCTIONS TOY SETS MODELLING

31. All these sessions mentioned above were videotaped.

32. PHASE-2

33. Three-Dimensional Language Acquisition Test (3D-LAT) (Geetha Harlekhar, 1986) Assessment checklist for cognitive skills (Swapna, Jayaram, Prema, Geetha, in progress).

34. Analysis Data coding for free play: Various types of play behaviors exhibited during free play with basket A & B were coded from the videotape for frequency of the specified play behaviour. It was marked in the tally sheet and documented descriptively.

35. The coding categories include A variety of o non-pretend behaviors such as Grouping Manipulation Wandering and social interaction. Three basic categories of functional and/or pretend play Functional conventional, Functional to self, and Functional to other. Two types of elaborate or advanced play Symbolism sub classified into three types. Sequences sub classified into four types

36. Data coding for structured play Scoring: Spontaneous occurrence of a desired behavior in session 1- 3 Occurrence of a desired behavior in response to instruction in session 2- 2 Occurrence of a desired behavior following modeling in session 2- 1 Non occurrence of a desired behavior in session 1 or 2- 0 Maximum score that can be obtained: 5 (Spontaneous display in session 1 and display response to instruction in session 2)

37. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

38. Aggregate of free play behaviors overall (A+B) and by individual baskets A and B).

39. Free Play Analysis

40. Free Play Analysis

41. Table 2: Mean number of targeted responses in structured play: session I vs. structured play: session II - instruction/modeling) across subjects

42. Mean weighted scores of different play behaviours during structured play across sets.

43. Relationship of Play With Language and Cognition *p < .05 level, **p < .01 level, Receptive Language Age, ELA – Expressive Language Age, CLA –Cognitive Language Age, PA –Play Age, CA- Cognitive Age.

44. Correlation between Receptive Language, Expressive Language and Cognitive Language

45. IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY It is expected that the findings of the study will provide an insight into the relationship between the symbolic play skills and language development children. It will help us to refine our understanding of both normative and atypical symbolic development. The study has important implication for early childhood assessment and intervention alsoEarly identification

46. The findings of such research might contribute to theories of language development as well as assist clinicians and public planners in designing accurate screening procedures. Further research -study can be undertaken in different other age groups by incorporating more number of subjects in each age group.

47. A longitudinal study of children also could throw light into the pattern of changes that occur with respect to the skills and their temporal correspondences in the various developmental stages. The results may reveal the use of structured play assessment as a valid, clinical tool for differential diagnosis of various communication disorders.

48. REFERENCES Bretherton, I. (1984) Representing the social world in symbolic play: Reality and fantasy. In I. Bretherton (Ed), Symbolic play- The development of social understanding. Orlando , FL:Academic Press. Brown, J. (1975). Symbolic play in normal and language impaired children. Paper presented at the American Speech- Language- Hearing- Association Annual Convention, Washington, DC. Bates, E., Benigni, L., Bretherton. I.,Camaioni, L.,& Volterra, V.(1979).The emergence of symbols:cognition and communcation in infancy. New York:Academic Press. Chick Hsia Yu Kitty (2000) ‘Correlation between symbolic play and language in normal developing Cantonese speaking children.’ Dissertation submitted as a part of partial fulfillment for the bachelor of science, speech and hearing sciences. University of Honk kong .

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50. Thank you