ABSTRACT
The ability to use material objects and body movements (e.g. gestures and articulatory movements) as symbols is an essential feature of human life, providing the foundation for language and the uniquely human form of cognition, and culture. Children make remarkable strides in the acquisition of symbols in a variety of domains over the first few years of their life. The chapters by McCune (8) and Matthews (9) trace the development of this ability in the areas of pretend, play, language, and drawing. Chapter 7 by Zittoun tackles a somewhat different developmental question and examines how objects become charged with personal symbolic meaning (Langer, 1942). In our commentary we address two issues. First, we raise some issues pertinent to the concept of meaning. Second, we examine some of the developmental roots of symbolic activity.
