ABSTRACT
Young children's play is treated with considerable respect in literature devoted to early development, early childhood education, and even development of early literacy skills of hearing children. One important use for knowledge of young children's development of play is in assessment of cognitive-symbolic skills. The majority of scales and procedures used to assess play of infants and toddlers is based either directly or indirectly on the work of J. Piaget, which has been further documented and defined by a number of researchers. Systematic investigation and comparison of interventions are needed to determine ways to assure that play experiences provide a comfortable, supportive 'room' in which deaf infants and toddlers can experiment with and enhance their emerging skills: linguistic, cognitive, and social. Finally, interventionists need more information about what to expect when they look through the 'window' provided by deaf children's play to assess their development and the effects of programming efforts.
