VALIDATION DATA ON THE WARWICK SYMBOLIC PLAY TEST

This paper examines the validity of a recently developed test of symbo lic play. The Warwick Symbolic Play Test (WSPT) was administered to 60 normal children, 30 girls and 30 boys aged 3-6 years. In addition the children's expressive and receptive language skills were assessed usi ng the Renfrew Action Picture Test and the British Picture Vocabulary Scale respectively. Significant correlations were found between scores obtained on the play test and both language measures. Exploratory sta tistics indicated that, when age was taken into account, partial corre lations between play and language remained moderate. Further analysis of the results also suggested that the relationship between play and l anguage ability as measured by the tests was stronger for the younger children in the sample than for the older children. These results sugg est that the WSPT may indeed be a useful assessment instrument, in con junction with measures of functional play, for assessment of language ability, diagnosis and possible treatment of language disorders, espec ially for children under the development age of 5 years.