Is there a way to ad icon type individual application launchers to the Dashboard like the Firefox and Dolphin icons?
Looks like you can first place the “Application Launcher” widget on your Dashboard, and then use drag and drop to place individual app launchers. Afterwards you can close the “Application Launcher” widget. There are probably other ways too, though.
You gave me at least an idea of how it might be done.
How I did it was from the “classic” launcher navigate to the application and right select the application which allows you put it in the Dashboard/panel. Now to figure out how to move them around.
Right-clicking the items does not allow you to add them to your dashboard if you have set it up to show an independent set of widgets. To do that you need to be a little bit more crafty. I thought you had asked about that. 
But if you want to move around things on your panels, then just click the small cashew at the end of the panel and drag things around.