PARENT-CHILD SYMBOLIC PLAY - 3 THEORIES IN SEARCH OF AN EFFECT

In symbolic play, children construct increasingly sophisticated repres entations of the world as well as relations between symbols and their external referents as they advance upon their developing cognitions ab out people, actions, and objects. Presumably, more sophisticated partn ers. like parents, promote children's development in this domain. Yet, the empirical literature to date shows little support for the notion that child solitary symbolic play grows through adult-child symbolic p lay interactions. This paper first reviews empirical studies that addr ess the role and effects of a moro sophisticated partner on children's early symbolic play. Next, the paper presents three theoretical persp ectives that support a view that symbolic interactions with adults oug ht to promote childrens symbolic play and advance children's represent ational competencies more broadly; they include attachment, scaffoldin g, and ethological theory. Finally, the paper revisits the literature on interactive influences on children's play reconsidering the nature and role of specific independent and dependent variables in studies of the growth of children's symbolic play. (C) Academic Press, Inc.