Vygotsky's Study of Child Development

L.S. Vygotsky began his analysis by reading the work of researchers like Wolfgang Kohler and Buhler, who sought to establish similarities between a child and an ape. Buhler’s experiments indicated that the activity of a young child before speaking is identical to an ape. Other psychologists, Guillaume, and Meyerson suggested that the ape’s behavior was parallel to that observed in people who were Speech impaired. These psychologists’ work focused on the practical activity of children at the age when they are beginning to speak. Vygotsky also focused his work on the activity of children at the age before Speech. However, his primary concern was to describe and specify the development of those forms of practical intelligence that were explicitly human. He concluded that before mastering his behavior, the child begins to master his surroundings with the help of Speech. In his research, Vygotsky found that in certain circumstances, it seems natural and necessary for children to speak. Speech not only accompanies practical activity but also plays a specific role in carrying out the activity. He concluded that Speech and action have a particular function in the history of the child’s development.

As he continued to compare Kohler’s work on the ape to children’s development, he began to look at perception and attention in child development. Kohler believed that apes bound by their receptive field have a greater extent than adult humans. Vygotsky believed that a child’s perception, because it is human, does not develop as a direct continuation and further perfection of the forms of animal perception. Vygotsky and his colleagues conducted different experiments, which led them to discover that labeling is the primary function of Speech used by young children. Labeling enables the child to choose a specific object to single it out from the entire situation he is perceiving. The child begins to see the world, his eyes, and his Speech. Speech becomes an essential part of a child’s cognitive development.

From their knowledge of Speech and perception, Vygotsky began the study of human memory. This study revealed that all the other functions built around memory in early childhood are one of the central psychological functions. His analysis suggested that memory, in many respects, determines thinking in a very young child. For the very young child to think is to remember. He felt that the essential characteristic of human behavior, in general, is that humans personally influence their relations with the environment. He also believes that internal reconstruction happens when a child’s development proceeds in a spiral passing through the same point of each new revolution while advancing to a higher level. In the initial phase, the reliance on external signs is crucial to a child’s effort. Take memorization, the late stages of a child’s behavior appear to be the same as the early stages of memorizing, which were characterized by a direct process. The very young child does not rely on external means. Instead, he uses a natural approach. On the other hand, the older child has begun to memorize more and better. The older student has somehow perfected and developed old methods of memorization.

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As he studied a child’s development, he focused his attention on the relationship between learning and development. He felt that this relationship was unclear because of detailed research studies that resulted in a variety of errors. Vygotsky felt that the relationship between learning and development consisted of two separate issues. The first was the general relation between learning and development. The second was specific features of this relationship when children reach school age. That children’s learning begins long before they attend school. He went on to explain that school learning introduces something fundamentally new to a child’s development. It is well-known, and empirically the fact that learning should match in some manner with the child’s developmental level. The Zone of Proximal Development plays an essential role. It is the distance between the actual development level, as determined by independent problem solving, and the level of potential development. The Zone of proximal development defines those functions that have not yet matured but are in the process of maturation.

The influence of play on a child’s development creates demands on the child to act against immediate impulse. At every step, the child is faced with a conflict between the rules of the game and what he would do if he could suddenly act spontaneously. In the game, he acts counter to the way he wants to act. Play gives a child a new form of desire. Play for a very young child means that she plays without separating the ideal situation from the real one. For the school child, the play does not die away but permeates the attitude toward reality. It has its inner continuation in the school’s instruction and work.

As in a play, drawing representation of meaning initially arises as first-order symbolism. The first drawings arise from gestures of the pencil-equipped hand, and gesture constitutes the first representation of meaning. Later on, the graphic representation begins to denote some object. From Vygotsky’s point of view, it would be natural to transfer the teaching of writing to the preschool years. If younger children are capable of discovering the symbolic function of writing, then the teaching of writing should be the responsibility of preschool education. He made it clear that writing should be meaningful and intrinsic for children. Writing should be incorporated into a task that is necessary and relevant for life. In the same way, a child learns to speak, should be able to read and write. Reading and writing should become necessary for her in play. Vygotsky summed it up by saying that children should learn written language, not just the writing of letters.

Vygotsky’s studies looked at child development through different lenses. His work focused on a child’s development of Speech, perceptions, memory, signs, learning, and development, play, drawing representation, and writing. Walking through various pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms today, a lot of what Vygotsky discussed in his writings and research is in place in those classrooms. The role of play in early childhood gives us information about the child’s social-emotional learning. Today social-emotional learning is a curriculum in elementary schools.