Verbal symbolic function in childhood. Evidence from a sample of urban children in Argentina. Función simbólica verbal en la infancia. Evidencias de una muestra de niños de zonas urbanas de Argentina.

Abstract

The ability to represent absent objects using signs and symbols, in accordance with age and socio-cultural environment, is known as symbolic function. Acquiring this ability plays a key role in cognitive development and in meeting the challenges characteristic of each stage of growth. An empirical study was conducted to investigate the level of acquisition of verbal symbolic function in children from urban areas of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to describe it in detail and to find out differences according to gender and age. The study design was non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational, using non-probabilistic sampling (N=52; mean age= 6.31 years, SD= 2.07; 52% male). Among the main results, it was found that, as hypothesized, symbolic ability increases as children get older. In addition, boys obtained higher mean scores than girls. Finally, using multiple linear regression analysis, it was shown that age was an explanatory variable for symbolic function, while gender was not. It is noteworthy that only four boys completed the symbolic function test without making errors and obtained the maximum score. These findings indicate that it cannot be assumed that children automatically acquire verbal symbolic function when they pass the kindergarten stage or when they reach the age of six or older. A discussion of the results is conducted in the light of socio-historical-cultural theory.