We are exploring the variety of systems humans use to communicate about both the physical and the emotional world.  Although one of the long-term goals is to identify the similarities and differences across symbolic domains (e.g., verbal language, play, and graphic symbols), current research is focused on the development of graphic symbol systems.  Although we know a little about the milestones in children's graphic symbol formation through studies of drawing productions in young children, we know very little about the processes that underlie this development, especially as they relate to children's general symbolic development.
        Graphic symbol formation is interesting for a number of reasons.  It is one of the symbol systems that flowers during the early preschool years but is relied upon throughout our lives.  Graphic symbols are used across most cultures but they appear to be specific to the human species.  We use graphic symbols to communicate about both the physical and the social/emotional world, thus graphic symbols can be useful in exploring the question of whether different forms of knowledge are called upon for these very different communicative functions.  Many cultures have art forms that utilise graphic symbols and so a study of graphic symbol understanding and production, especially for an expressive function, can lead to an illumination of the development of artistic symbolic abilities.      Finally, genuine graphic symbol use appears relatively late (around three years), well after verbal language has emerged.  The question of whether humans need to build additional symbol systems upon a primary verbal symbol system, or indeed whether there exists an amodal symbolic function at all, can be explored through a contrast of graphic with verbal symbolic development.
         Our current research program has two main areas: 1) the study of the emergence of the ability to understand and produce graphic symbols of physical objects, and 2) the exploration of factors that affect developing understanding and production of expressive graphic symbols that capture the child's social and emotional world.  In studies of symbols of the physical world, we began with an exploration of how the visual/attentional system itself contributes to this process and have now moved on to examine whether (and what types of) social scaffolding can accelerate the acquisition of graphic symbols.  In experiments that investigate expressive symbols, we have explored the aesthetic side of the issue (e.g., How do children respond to emotionally expressive paintings?) and as well the question of what experiences help children to produce more effective symbols of their social/emotional world (e.g., Are symbols more effective when produced while feeling the emotion portrayed).  Current research is aimed at testing proposals about the mechanisms at work for understanding and production of expressive symbols.  An ultimate goal of the research is to compare the ways children communicate about their physical and emotional world and to establish whether distinct 'ways of knowing' exist for these different communicative functions.