Abstract

BONILLA SANCHEZ, María del Rosario; SOLOVIEVA, Yulia  and  JIMENEZ BARRETO, Nancy Rocío. Assessment of the level of symbolic development in preschool age. CES Psicol [online]. 2012, vol.5, n.2, pp.56-69. ISSN 2011-3080.

The preschool age is one of the most important stages in psychological development of a child. In this age, new psychological skills arise in order to master children to start school formation; these abilities lead to cognitive and personal traits changes. The Symbolic function, essential at this age, refers to children's ability to represent absent objects through the use of symbols and signs according to their psychological age and sociocultural environment. The development of the symbolic function, also contributes to facilitate other psychological functions indispensable for school performance, such as verbal activity, reading, writing, as well as elemental acquisition of conceptual and mathematical thinking. The goal of this article is to describe the characteristics of the symbolic function development level in preschoolers. In the present study, 59 third grade students from a suburban preschool in Mexico participated. All of them were tested by the assessment protocol of symbolic function, the proposed instrument focused on historical-cultural child psychological development. The findings presented low development level of the symbolic function in children, a situation that may impact on their psychological, intellectual and school success.

Keywords : Preeschool Age; Preeschool Students; Preeschool Education; Child Psychological Development; Child Psychology; Childhood Development; Symbolic Function; School Transition; Preparation for School.

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