Lev Vygotsky
Born: 1896 in Ohrsa, Belarus

Vygotsky was a Soviet psychologist whose studies greatly influenced his theories. Many of his writing focus on psychology and its application in different educational areas. Some of his more well known work focused on social interactions and how they effected the development of a child. This is known as the zone of proximal development. Where a child is measured by their ability to solve problems on their own, against how well they solve problems with the guidance of an adult or peer. He felt that play was important because this is where children would stretch their imagination and also begin mimicking the actions of adults and other important people in their lives. Aside from social factors, he felt that speech played a key developmental role. His three stages of speech are:

1st Command stage. This is when children first begin speaking. Their speech is used solely to get things they need or want.

2nd egocentric stage. As children gorw, they begin to focus on inward speech, meaning that they will talk about what they are doing even if no one is there to talk to. This leads to the final stage.

3rd Inner. When we begin to speak inward without the need to express our thoughts verbally. Example is when we can read a book without verbally speaking the words.

Due to social pressure and suppression, most of Vygotskys works were unknown in the west until many years after his death.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Vygotsky

http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/v/y.htm#vygotsky-lev

http://starfsfolk.khi.is/solrunb/vygotsky.htm

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