THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY SYMBOLIZATION - EDUCATIONAL-IMPLICATIONS

Research on the symbolic functioning of very young children has import ant implications for educational materials. We argue that there are no transparent symbols; one can never assume that what seems to be an ob vious symbolic relation is obvious to young children. We have discover ed that young children have particular difficulty understanding and us ing symbols that are themselves interesting objects. A symbol, such as a scale model of a room, that is salient and appealing as an object, requires a dual representation: To use a model, one must simultaneousl y represent both the model itself and its referent. Research on young children's understanding and use of models indicates that they have pa rticular difficulty achieving dual representation. This work has clear implications for the use of symbolic objects for educational purposes . We discuss several examples of commonly used symbolic objects, sugge sting that they may be less helpful to young learners than is generall y assumed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.