ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to review the previous chapters and find the common themes regarding the nature, origin, and acquisition of symbolic communication and its function for cognitive development. As presented in the preface, our broad goal is to identify the cognitive developmental consequences attributed to communicating symbolically. As previously defined, symbolic communication means understanding others or expressing oneself with symbols, whether that involves communicating linguistically, mathematically, or through another symbol system expressed in speech, gesture, notations, or through some other means.
