ABSTRACT
This is a book about pictorial symbols which are used to help children, young people and adults who have difficulty using standard text. The focus is upon the use of symbols to support literacy, rather than their role in facilitating direct, face-to-face communication, although there is a great deal of overlap between the two areas.
The use of symbols has been steadily growing since the early 1980s. In 1997 we wrote that there had recently been a quiet revolution in their use, and this has continued. This chapter shows some of the ways in which symbols have had an impact on learners, presents the context for the recent growth in the use of symbols, and traces the historical development of symbols, focusing on pictorial systems.
