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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 17, 2026

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Experience is Instrumental in Tuning a Link Between Language and Cognition: Evidence from 6- to 7- Month-Old Infants' Object Categorization

Published on: April 19, 2017

Symbolic play and language development.

Edna Orr¹, Ronny Geva²

¹The Developmental Neuropsychology Lab, The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Centre, Bar Ilan University, Israel.

Infant Behavior & Development

|February 7, 2015

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Early symbolic play, like single-object play, directly and indirectly influences language development. This finding clarifies the relationship between play and language acquisition in infants.

Keywords:

Babbling Mother responsiveness Play Speech Symbolic development

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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Linguistics
Cognitive Science

Background:

Symbolic play and language are known to be interrelated in child development.
The precise developmental pathways driving this relationship remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the developmental relationship between symbolic play and language acquisition.
To test three hypotheses: direct, indirect interactive, and dual-path models of play-language development.

Main Methods:

Micro-coding of 288 symbolic play vignettes from 14 infants.
Longitudinal study conducted bi-weekly from 6 to 18 months of age.

Main Results:

The initiation age of single-object symbolic play strongly correlates with later symbolic and vocal output initiation.
The frequency of single-object play correlates with babbling, speech, and multi-object play frequency.

Conclusions:

Results support a model where single-object symbolic play influences other symbolic forms through both direct and indirect pathways.
The findings do not support a dual-path hypothesis for play-language development.