The Symbolic Play Test was given to 31 socially impaired and 29 sociable elementary grade children retarded in language comprehension, of similar intelligence (profoundly retarded to normal). Play test age and spontaneous pretend play were similar in sociable Ss but, in the socially impaired, spontaneous pretend play was lower than play test age…

The paper examines the use of concrete symbol systems to make the transition from presymbolic to formal symbolic communication for deaf blind students. Comments focus on expressive use of concrete symbols and address two issues requiring further research: (1) the critical features of referent objects, concrete symbols, and concrete symbol arrays…

Visual accents can create unique communication graphics to increase attending behavior necessary for learning symbol/referent relationships by students with severe vision loss. Accenting procedures use size, color, contrast, shape, and graphic pattern to enhance the probability that the learner will self-initiate attending to the visual symbol.…

The Progressive Tactile Timetable was developed to enable pupils with visual impairments and severe learning difficulties to progress from use of concrete symbols (objects of reference) to the abstract tactile Moon code (a simplified raised line version of the Roman print alphabet). A case study illustrates its application with an adolescent with…

A computerized symbol processor system using an Apple IIe computer and a Power Pad graphics tablet was tested with 22 nonspeaking, multiply disabled students. The students were taught to express themselves independently in writing, and they did significantly better than control students on measures of language comprehension and symbol recognition.…