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Symbolic Play (symbolic + play)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Infant Symbolic Play as an Early Indicator of Fetal Alcohol-Related Deficit

INFANCY, Issue 6 2010
Christopher D. Molteno
Infant symbolic play was examined in relation to prenatal alcohol exposure and socioenvironmental background and to predict which infants met criteria for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) at 5 years. A total of 107 Cape-Colored, South African infants born to heavy drinking mothers and abstainers/light drinkers were recruited prenatally. Complexity of play, sociodemographic and psychological correlates of maternal alcohol use, and quality of parenting were assessed at 13 months, and intelligence quotient and FAS diagnosis at 5 years. The effect of drinking on spontaneous play was not significant after control for social environment. In contrast, prenatal alcohol and quality of parenting related independently to elicited play. Elicited play predicted 5-year Digit Span and was poorer in infants subsequently diagnosed with FAS/partial FAS and in nonsyndromal heavily exposed infants, compared with abstainers/light drinkers. Thus, symbolic play may provide an early indicator of risk for alcohol-related deficits. The independent effects of prenatal alcohol and quality of parenting suggest that infants whose symbolic play is adversely affected by alcohol exposure may benefit from stimulation from a responsive caregiver. [source]

Play and emotional availability in young children with Down syndrome

INFANT MENTAL HEALTH JOURNAL, Issue 2 2008
Paola Venuti
This study investigates mother,child interaction and its associations with play in children with Down syndrome (DS). There is consensus that mother,child interaction during play represents an important determinant of typical children's play development. Concerning children with DS, few studies have investigated mother,child interaction in terms of the overall emotional quality of dyadic interaction and its effect on child play. A sample of 28 children with DS (M age = 3 years) took part in this study. In particular, we studied whether the presence of the mother in an interactional context affects the exploratory and symbolic play of children with DS and the interrelation between children's level of play and dyadic emotional availability. Children showed significantly more exploratory play during collaborative play with mothers than during solitary play. However, the maternal effect on child symbolic play was higher in children of highly sensitive mothers relative to children whose mothers showed lower sensitivity, the former displaying more symbolic play than the latter in collaborative play. Results offer some evidence that dyadic emotional availability and child play level are associated in children with DS, consistent with the hypothesis that dyadic interactions based on a healthy level of emotional involvement may lead to enhanced cognitive functioning. [source]

(Re)presenting experience: a comparison of Australian Aboriginal children's sand play in two settings

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDIES, Issue 1 2008
Ute Eickelkamp
Abstract This paper examines how Australian Aboriginal children present and re-present experience in their symbolic play. Based on anthropological field research in one location and therapeutic work in another, it reports from a psychodynamic perspective how the Indigenous children create meaning on the personal and social level in two distinctive play forms. These are a traditional sand story game played by Anangu Pitjantjatjara girls in a remote Western Desert community in Central Australia, and the European sand play therapy that was introduced as part of an intervention program in a Tiwi Islands community off the northern coast. In phenomenological terms, both techniques draw on the symbolizing activity of the lived body (Schilder, 1950, 1951; Merleau-Ponty, 1961; Scheler, 1973) or, in the language of organismic-developmental theory, physiognomizing processes (Werner and Kaplan, 1984). These processes are seen to rest on the primary human capacity for imagination (Castoriadis, 1987). However, the schematizing activity that creates a meaningful relationship between symbol and referent (Werner and Kaplan, 1984) is specific to each play form. Set up retrospectively as a comparison, the discussion leads to the observation that the self-directed play in the natural social setting is of a higher symbolic order (re-presentational) than the externally induced play in the artificial social setting that indicates spontaneous linkages between symbol and referent (presentational). It is suggested that this raises certain questions about the potentially therapeutic effect of children's symbolic play. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Fathers' play with their Down Syndrome children

JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 6 2008
S. De Falco
Abstract Background In children with Down Syndrome (DS), as in other groups of special needs children, development depends crucially on the degree to which parents provide appropriate stimulation and effective support. The majority of recent studies investigating interactions between parents and children with DS have been conducted on mothers. Method Through observation of child solitary play, child collaborative play with their father, and father play with their child, the current study focused on paternal contributions to child play in association with the effective quality of father,child interactions. A total of 19 children (M chronological age = 35.32 months, SD = 10.35; M mental age = 19.58, SD = 5.43) with DS and their fathers participated in the study. Two 10-min sessions, of child solitary play and collaborative play with their father, were videorecorded. A coding system for exploratory and symbolic play was applied to both sessions, and the Emotional Availability (EA) Scales were independently applied to the collaborative play session as a measure of the effective quality of the father,child interaction. Results Children showed more symbolic play during collaborative sessions compared with solitary sessions. Bivariate correlations showed positive associations between father play and child exploratory and symbolic play. Cluster analysis identified dyads in low, medium and high EA groups, which differed in terms of each partner's play. Specifically, both fathers and children of high EA dyads were more likely to show more symbolic play and less exploratory play than those with low EA dyads. Conclusions Our findings enrich the theoretical perspective that dyadic interactions based on emotional involvement may lead to enhanced cognitive functioning in children with DS. [source]