Abstract
Many educators and developmental psychologists have pointed to the development of symbolic
thought and representational abilities as a set of fundamental capacities that underlie the development
of self-regulation, problem solving, planning, and higher level thought processes. While many early
childhood programs value children’s development of symbolic capacities, three approaches, High/
Scope, Tools of the Mind, and Reggio Emilia, were analyzed in terms of one context from the array of
strategies and experiences that characterizes the approach in order to examine the distinctive way that
three different preschool programs apply the theoretical construct of representational development to
pedagogical strategies