Deferred imitation, event representation, and language-making in one child's socio-dramatic play

One line of research in children’s cognitive and linguistic development investigates the interweaving of what the literature speaks of as deferred imitation, event representation, and language acquisition. This chapter considers some of the implications of Kathrine Nelson’s pioneering work concerning the relations of these complex phenomena. Nelson’s (2007) analysis rests on the assumptions about the nature of symbols and signs developed in Terrence Deacon’s (1997) interpretation of Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic and in Jean Piaget’s (1962) interpretation of Ferdinand de Saussure’s structural theory of language. Instead, it is proposed that Roy Harris’ (1996) integrational approach and Heinz Werner and Bernard Kaplan’s (1963) organismic-developmental approach to the formation of symbols and the expression of thought offer a more viable explanation of the dynamics involved in young children’s linguistic activities. The argument is illustrated with an interpretation of a single episode of a 30-month-old child’s socio-dramatic play.