Spatial semiotics and general rules in the construction of graphic structures by young children

Abstract

By virtue of the spatial organization it grants to graphic signs, graphic symbolization can be considered as one of the fundamental cognitive prerequisites to learning to read and write. Based on this premise, a research project was designed to study the construction and operation of graphic semiotic structures in preschool children (G. Netchine-Grynberg, S. Netchine, 1989a, 1989b, 1990, 1991, 1992). One important but poorly understood issue in this field is the link between spontaneous graphic symbolization in young children and their learning of the conventional graphic representation rules transmitted socially and taught in the schools. Experimental tasks using logograms with varying degrees of contextualization (arbitrary and figurative pictograms, icons) were set up in order to obtain graphic transcriptions of positional relations ([at the top of], [at the bottom of], [on], [under], [in front of], [behind]) between discrete visual objects. The children’s task was to graphically represent each of the spatial relations on a supporting surface. The results presented in this article pertain to a category of highly contextualized, iconic logograms, the so-called outline shapes.