Play/cognitive language intervention--a useful guide

[Guest guest]

Here is a crude summary of the Westby play scale (Carol Westby Language,

Speech and Hearing Services in Schools Vol XI, 154-168. July 1980) which I

found to be VERY helpful in targeting play skills and language use play

(which is a child's natural environment, in my estimation). I use the

Westby because I like how she organized her information. I like that the

whole scale is two pages long. I like the emphasis on play and language in

play reflecting cognitive consciousness (awareness of other's state of

minds, etc). It seemed to lend itself to teaching theory of mind (TOM)

stuff at very early ages. I DON'T want to be explaining TOM stuff to the

boys when they are suffering in middle school. I want to lay the

foundations now through play--when all other kids " get it. "

Edited for relevance and somewhat interpreted, here it is:

Stage I: 9 to 12 months

PLAY: Travel to get what want, stop mouthing everything. Finds toy hidden

under scarf.

LANGUAGE: Some appropriate toy use with performance words (woo-woo, sound

effects, etc). Communication: MANDS--Request AND command (implies child

directing others--already some control over their environment)

Stage II: 13-17 months:

PLAY: Purposeful exploration of toys--discovers how they operate via trial

and error. Variety of motor schema with toys. HANDS TOY TO ADULT IF UNABLE

TO OPERATE (this, in my opinion, represents an early TOM awareness that

others may possess skills they lack--good target to teach).

LANGUAGE: Context dependent single words (says car when riding in car, but

doesn't label car when asked). Words come and go in vocabulary (this is

NORMAL children). Uses language in the following ways: Request, command,

call attention to self, establish interaction, greet, protest and label. At

this stage (note the age), a child begins to ask for help, even if by

gesture. According to Westby, this indicates that a child understands that

adults are agents who can act on objects. Again, I think that cognitive

awareness is directly related to TOM.

Stage III: 17-19 months:

PLAY: autosymbolic play--child pretends to fall asleep, or pretends to drink

from a cup, or eat with a spoon. Playfulness/awareness of pretending emerge

in relation to self. Uses tool to reach toy (e.g. Stick). Uses most

common objects and toys appropriately. Finds toys invisibly hidden ( put

object in box, and dump out under a scarf).

LANGUAGE: Functional and semantic development in language with the

following uses demonstrated: 1. Recurrence 2. Existence 3. Nonexistence 4.

Rejection 5. Denial 6. Agent and object 7. Action or state 8. Location 9.

Object or person associated with object or location. (Oh I wish Carol

Westby would go through the ABLLS and decode these terms for me! I can only

guess what they refer to. ) Rapid growth in number of words USED. Will

NOT refer to ABSENT situations (correlate this with request for things

absent?)

Stage IV: 19- 22 months:

PLAY: symbolic play extends beyond self. E.g. Play with dolls--brushes

doll's hair, feeds toy, puts doll to bed. Combines TWO toys in pretend

play--e.g. Puts spoon in pan, pours from pitcher to cup.

LANGUAGE: Begins to use possessives, (my , mine). NO word endings. Makes

reference to objects and people NOT present (which acc. To Westby indicates

consolidated sensorimotor concepts and internalized action schemas--a

reflection of cognitive acheivement).

Stage V: 24 months:

PLAY: pretends at activities of others--re-presents his daily experiences

(play house, play acts as mommy, daddy, baby). Uses objects that are

realistic and close to life size (won't use miniature action figures yet,

apparently). Short events--no true sequences, except perhaps short,

self-limiting ones such as puts food in pan, stirs and eats. BLOCK

PLAY--consists of stacking and knocking down. Sand and water play consists

of filling, pouring and dumping (now THAT takes some pressure off!). Child

does NOT build representational structures. Blocks are not integrated into

pretend play.

LANGUAGE: All the same pragmatic language functions now extend to phrases

and short sentences. Word endings: ING appears on words, plurals and

possessives. Language functions extend to PRETEND, sharing information and

questioning (NOTE--not answering questions--ACTIVELY questioning).

Stage VI: 2 1/2 years:

PLAY: Represents events less frequently experienced or observed,

particularly impressive or traumatic events--1. Doctor-nurse-sick child 2.

Teacher-child 3. Store-shopping. Events are still short and isolated.

Realistic props still required. Roles shift quickly. Parallel play

predominates.

LANGUAGE: Responds appropriately to the following WH questions in context:

What, who, whose, where, what...do, ASKS WH questions, Responds to WHY

questions inappropriately, except for well known routines. , ASKS why, but

often inappropriately and does not attend to answer. TOM: child can use

language to selectively analyze perception as seen by ASKING and ANSWERING

WH- questions. Before age three, use of size occurs with respect to

selves versus comparative.

STAGE VII: 3 years old:

PLAY: relates pretend schemas in a sequence. (EG. Mix cake, bake it, serve

it, wash dishes.) Sequence evolves unplanned (we'd of course need to teach

this, requiring some planning.) This demonstrates a cognitive basis for

using past tense and future aspect (TIME). Still dependent on realistic

props. Associative play increases. Reenact old play scenarios with new

outcomes (spontaneous improvisation) that reflect what child would have

LIKED to have happen in scenario (eg. Doll hides at doctor's office,

refusing to be examined).

LANGUAGE: Past tense (I ate, I walked) describing past events.

Future aspect: I'm gonna, etc.

Stage VIII: 3 to 3 1/2:

PLAY: s out play of earlier stages with doll house and fisher-price

style toys ( less realistic props--reflects child's ability to take another

person's perspective --TOM). Blocks are used to make enclosures. One

object is used to represent another (row of chairs is bus) aka play is not

stimulus bound. Uses doll or puppet as participant in play--doll is a

friend now and has own personality (TOM).

LANGUAGE: Marked increase in descriptive attributes--reflects emerging

understanding of perception (TOM). Concepts emerge in speech: shapes,

size, colors, texture, spatial relationships (DO WE EMPHASIZE THESE TOO

EARLY?). Gives dialogue to puppets and dolls. Metalinguistic language:

" HE SAID... " , Uses indirect requests " Mommy lets me have cookies for

breakfast. " , Changes speech dependent on listener (definite TOM).

Stage IX: 3 1/2 to 4 years:

PLAY: (age 4) begins to problem solve events not experienced (e.g. Child

builds enclosure for circus animals and needs a roof. Looking at several

objects, rejects some without trying by reasoning too big, small, heavy,

etc. Plans ahead. Hypothesizes " what would happen IF... " . Uses Dolls and

puppets to act out scenes. Builds 3 dimensional structures with blocks that

represent actual objects seen.

LANGUAGE: Conceptualizes " this should " , " this would " , " This won't " " If I do

this, then.. " " This is big enough, but it's too heavy " . Verbalizes

intentions by using " can, may , might, could , would, will " and

conjunctions: " and, but, if, so, because. " These are emerging skills, not

competent skills (that takes until age 10-12 in typical children). Begins

to respond appropriately to why and how questions that require reasoning

about perception.

Stage X: 5 years:

PLAY: Plans a sequence of pretend events and organizes needs in

advance--both objects and children. Can coordinate simultaneous events.

E.g. Plan his role in a play situation and decide what others will be doing

as well. No longer dependent on realistic props, can rely fully on

imagination to set scenes. Full cooperative play seen.

LANGUAGE: Planning coordinated events reflects the cognitive attainment of

relative and subordinate clauses that relate two or more prepositions to

each other. Uses relational terms such as " then, when, first, next, last,

while, before and after " , but doesn't develop full competence with usage

until 10-12 years of age (typical children).

I must quote the article fuller here:

" A cognitively based orientation to language acquisition implies that

language training can never do more than assist the child in expressing what

he/she already understands " My note: I think that behaviorally, we are

teaching cognitive comprehension if we teach operants in developmental

sequence in CONTEXT of cognitively relevant events (e.g. In the environment,

or as part of activities).

" remediation should provide experiences to facilitate development of the

cognitive sensorimotor or preoperational symbolic abilities rather than

emphasizing language skills " My note: for me, this is a subjective

conclusion without basis--you want both, teach both--using context to

facilitate comprehension.

" Directive adult-led teaching has been shown actually to retard, rather than

facilitate progress " My note: Ok, so child directed activities are

important, over-prompting squashes acquisition, but let's not draw too

strong a conclusion.

" In no evaluation has a child's meaningful use of language been above

his/her cognitive play level " THIS IS THE REAL MEAT AND MERIT OF THIS

ARTICLE--TEACH THE PLAY/SYMBOLIC COGNITION TO FACILITATE THE LANGUAGE USE.

This is a REALLY cool pearl. I LOVE this idea.

And LAST quote:

" Unless the child possesses the cognitive prerequisites for the linguistic

structures she/he is learning, she/he will not use them in actual

interpersonal situations. " COOL. THIS COULD BE A MISSING PIECE for many

programs. This information may help facilitate language USE.

I like this framework for cognitive play. It provides information to target

interventions. I hope you found it useful.