THE GESTUAL SYMBOLISM OF THE PSYCHOTIC-CHILD

A corporal approach towards psychotic children improves their communic ation skills, The authors propose an assessent of the symbolization sk ills of a population of normal children (mental age ranging from 22 to 57 months) and autistic children (mental age ranging from 22 to 57 mo nths), selected according to the DSM III a criteria in the gestual fie ld. They study the children's abilities to understand, imitate, name a nd match dynamic with static cues of symbolic and non symbolic gesture s. Their results have revealed the importance of imitation in the fiel d of interactions and have made it possible to differentiate levels in the organization of symbolic functions.