Relationships between symbolic play, functional play, verbal and non-verbal ability in young children

It is well established that certain aspects of play in young children are r elated to their emerging linguistic skills. The present study examined the relationships between functional play, symbolic play, non-verbal ability, a nd expressive and receptive language in normally developing children aged b etween 1 and 6 years using standardized assessment procedures, including a recently developed Test of Pretend May (ToPP). When effects of chronologica l age were partialled out, symbolic play remained significantly correlated with both expressive and receptive language, but not with functional play o r non-verbal ability; and functional play was only correlated significantly with expressive language. It is concluded that ToPP will provide practitio ners with a useful way of assessing symbolic ability in children between th e ages of 1 and 6 years, and will contribute to the assessment and diagnosi s of a number of communication difficulties, and have implications for inte rvention.