The Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky argued that it is not possible to describe the process by which children cognitively develop without taking into account the child’s social environment or culture. Culture provides knowledge, and it teaches children what to think and how to think. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory suggests that a child’s cognitive development is based on interaction with other people in order to develop cultural tools to understand the world.

Cultural tools should be understood as both the implicit and explicit rules or norms in the culture. Knowledge is transferred via imitation, direct instructions, or collaborative learning. Language is the primary form of interaction that adults use to transmit to the child the knowledge that exists in the culture. Experiences with other people become internalized and form the child's mental representation of the world.

Vygotsky and Piaget both agreed that children actively construct knowledge and that they learn best if new knowledge is related to existing knowledge and abilities.  Vygotsky argued that babies are born with “elementary mental functions” - that is, attention, sensation, memory, and perception. Cultural influences transform elementary functions into higher mental functions, such as problem-solving and thinking.  Contrary to Piaget, Vygotsky believed that learning tends to precede development.

Vygotsky postulated that a child develops through interaction with a “more knowledgeable other.” This could be a parent, sibling, teacher, or peer who has a better understanding or higher ability level than the learner. The child seeks to understand the actions or instructions of the tutor and then internalizes the information.

An important element in sociocultural theory is the concept of the zone of proximal development, which refers to the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a more knowledgeable other.  A child can increase in competence if he or she receives assistance to perform a task that is just slightly beyond his or her current ability. This is called scaffolding. Successful scaffolding can change the child’s level of performance on a particular task.

Tudge & Winterhoff (1993) found that the best peer tutors are those who are significantly ahead of their tutees. However, if the tutor lacks confidence or fails to provide the necessary scaffolding, then the tutoring is ineffective. Simply interacting with a "More Knowledgeable Other" is not enough for a child to develop.

Finally, Vygotsky also believed in the importance of play. He said that play allows children to take on roles they would normally not be able to perform in real life, requiring them to solve problems and strategize about theoretical situations. This helps them to extend their cognitive abilities.

The role of language in development

Vygotsky also placed more emphasis on language than Piaget did. Vygotsky argued that one of the great developmental markers is the internalization of language - that is, language is not just used for communication, but for thinking and problem-solving.

Private speech is when people talk aloud to themselves. It is a means for children to plan activities and strategies. Studies have found that children who engage in large amounts of private speech are more socially competent than children who do not use it. For example, Winsler et al (2003) videotaped 32 three and four-year-old children doing a series of problem-solving tasks - some in the lab and some in their preschool classroom. They also carried out interviews and surveys with the parents and teachers. They observed that children's private speech patterns were generally stable across tasks and over time. They also found that based on the reports of the teachers and parents, those children who engaged in high levels of private speech had more highly developed social skills.

From about the age of three to seven, there's a lengthy period of the development of egocentric speech. Egocentric speech often occurs in the presence of other children involved in the same activity, such as playing house together. It also occurs when the child is attempting to solve a problem. In these activities, the child's talk is a monologue; it is not intended to be a communicative form of speech. For example, if a child is trying to put together a puzzle, she might say "I need to first find a blue one. Here is a blue one. It should go near another blue one." She is not necessarily communicating with anyone; she is simply stating these directions for herself.  This self-talk guides a child through a task.

During the preschool period, egocentric speech increasingly moves inward as inner speech. It is a silent form of verbal thinking. The psychological nature of inner speech is important because it represents the most advanced level of the relationship between speech and thinking.

 Teacher only box

Students will have different opinions on this one. There is no harm that comes to the child by being monitored at all times and the research gives us a very interesting understanding of how words are developed over time in the developing child. 

That being said, there are some concerns about researchers studying their own children.  This may, however, may be more about objectivity than ethics. The ethical concerns tend to focus on consent, which the parent is required to give.  In this case, consent is granted.  It is important that the child is able to withdraw, but in this case, as there is no harm to the child, this is perhaps not such a concern.

My personal opinion?  Creepy, but most likely not a violation of ethical standards.

Checking for understanding