title: Symbolic play connects to language through visual object recognition.
abstract: Object substitutions in play (e.g. using a box as a car) are strongly linked to language learning and their absence is a diagnostic marker of language delay. Classic accounts posit a symbolic function that underlies both words and object substitutions. Here we show that object substitutions depend on developmental changes in visual object recognition: 18- to 30-month old children (n = 63) substitute objects in play after they have developed the adult-like ability to recognize common objects from sparse models of their geometric structure. These developmental changes in object recognition are a better predictor of object substitutions than language or age. A developmental pathway connecting visual object recognition, object name learning, and symbolic play is proposed in which object substitutions are like the canary in the coal mine: they are not causally related to language delay, but their absence is an easily detected signal of a problem in language acquisition.
authors: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University-Bloomington, IN 47405, USA. smith4@indiana.edu
authors: Linda B
authors: LB
authors: Smith
authors: Susan S
authors: SS
authors: Jones
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings / Q000523:psychology*; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013561:Symbolism; D014796:Visual Perception