Towards the use of symbol: Play with objects and communication with adults and peers in the second year

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between the onset, the development, and the increase of conventional acts spontaneously exhibited by toddlers in play with objects and in communication with adults and peers within one play context. Five triads of same-age familiar children (8, 13, 18, 24, and 27 months) and on adult were video-taped while playing with familiar objects. All the communicative acts addressed to adult and peers and actions with objects were identified and coded. Conventional acts and the ability to combine them appear earlier in actions with objects. Although from 18 months conventional acts increase dramatically in both domains, they play a different role in doing than in communicating. In communication, the use of language leads to a substantial increase in communicative production itself. At all ages, children are highly motivated to communicate with both adults and peers. As soon as language is acquired, it becomes the predominant modality of communication with both partners.