From Depiction to Notation: How Children Use Symbols to Represent Objects and Events Michelle Eskritt Mount St. Vincent University, Canada David Olson Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada The purpose of the present study was to explore children’s understanding of external symbols by examining the relationship between children’s production and comprehension of graphic notations and verbal messages. Fifty-six children between the ages of 5 and 7 years were asked to produce both nota- tions and a spoken message relaying to their ‘‘business partner,’’ a puppet, which cards a ‘‘customer’’ wanted delivered. They were also asked to evaluate the adequacy of notations and verbal statements made by the puppet about the customers’ orders. Children, regardless of the type of notations they produced, had problems identifying ineffective or ambiguous notations made by another. In comparison, children producing notations that contained all the relevant information were significantly better at producing a fully informative verbal message and recognizing verbal ambiguity. These children appear to have a better general metacommunicative ability. Most research on children’s developing notational competence has focused on comprehension of conventional notational systems (Lee & Karmiloff- Smith, 1996b). However, some research has examined children’s production of external symbols, including children’s ability to invent external symbols Correspondence should be sent to Michelle Eskritt, Department of Psychology, Mount St. Vincent University, 166 Bedford Hwy., Halifax, NS B3M 2J6, Canada. E-mail: michelle. eskritt@msvu.ca JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT, 13(2):189–207 Copyright # 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1524-8372 print=1532-7647 online DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2011.590786 189