Vygotsky (based on 1984, 2001)
Age
Social situation of
development
period
(determines
objective ZPD)
Birth
Physiologically
(0-2
separate but
biologically
months)
dependent
Lines of
development
(determine
subjective ZPD)
Feeding,
Positioning,
Neoformation
(New structures in
consciousness)
Individual Mental
Life (mostly
instinctive,
subcortical?)
Use of limbs.
Infancy
(2-12
months)
Crisis at
One
(10-14
months)
Early
Childhood
(12-36
months)
Biologically
dependent but
speechless
Shared activity,
The “Ur Wir” (the
“Grand-we” or
“Proto-we”)
Imitation,
Co-consciousness
Use of objects as
tools.
I = We
Awareness of
speech
Autonomous
walking,
“Ur-Wir”
collapses—
Autonomous
“talking”,
Affect is no longer
shared
“Hypobulia”
(Uncontrolled
Affect)
Verbalized
affective
perceptions,
Understandings are
dependent on
affective
perception.
Affective
perception cannot
be efficiently
communicated or
stored.
Crisis at
Three
(30-42
Passive interest,
Actions are tied to
relations with
others.
Naming,
generalization of
classes,
Child speech:
intonation without
articulatory
control,
articulatory
control without
words
Practical
consciousness
(i.e. speech
proper), both
systemic and
meaningful
“I” within “We”
Heaps and
associative
complexes
Involuntary
negativism,
Halliday (based on 2002)
Language features
(corresponding only roughly to the age
periods given)
Pre-symbolic (primary
intersubjectivity)
Crying, and not crying in response to
others.
Distinction between self and non-self.
Symbolic protolinguistic (secondary
intersubjectivity)
Semantics and phonology without
lexicogrammar
Symbols now non-iconic and
sometimes even organized into
systems (e.g. rising intonation for
pragmatic utterances and falling for
mathetic ones).
Microfunctions: instrumental,
regulatory, interactional, and personal.
“Trailers” (linguistically precocious
behavior which is then abandoned)
“Magic Gateways” (sudden
generalizations, e.g. systemic use of
intonation)
“Filtering” (ignoring structures that
are too advanced.)
Symbolic: Linguistic
(Semantics, lexicogrammar, and
phonology/phonetics)
Generalization: Words are no longer
proper names but classifiers.
Macrofunctions: mathetic and
pragmatic
Genres: Narrative and dialogue.
Negative self
“I” is not “we”
Unknown information can be
imparted, information focus changed.
Songs and jingles.
Breakdown of pragmatic/mathetic
distinction.
months)
Pre-school
(3;0 years
to 7;0
years)
Relations with
others are
differentiated from
situations.
Affects and actions
arise which are not
immediately
realizable.
“Trotz Alter”
(obstinacy),
“Eigensinn”
(willfulness)
Imaginary play
with objects,
Drawing,
Simple rule
based games,
Crisis at
Seven
(6;6-7;6)
School
Age
(7;0-13;0)
Crisis at
Thirteen
(12;613;6)
Loss of direct,
“naive”
correspondence
between meaning
and action.
Commonsense
verbal meanings
were the results of
situations; now
meanings can
create situations.
Conceptual
thinking requires
original thinking,
but this must be
learnt by imitation.
Collections,
chain complexes
Clowning,
Affectation,
(Trailers, Magic Gateways, and
Filtering as adult metafunctions
emerge).
Action was
dominated by
meaning (results):
in play, meaning
(intention) can
dominate action.
Reconstrual as adult metafunctions:
ideational, interpersonal and textual
Differentiation
between an inner
and an outer self,
self- love
Reconstruction and regression (c.f. the
lack of fit between use of language at
home and at school, gap between
written spoken language)
Conscious
awareness and
mastery of
disciplinary skills
(e.g. grammar,
math, foreign
languages)
Complementarity in grammar:
Learning to construe experience from
different angles (e.g. number,
present/non-present, real/ideal,
transitive/ergative, active/middle).
Imaginative function: songs, word
play, laughter.
Posing
Physical
competition,
Written speech,
Preconceptual
word meanings
Independent
physical activity,
Potential concepts
heavily colored by
concrete thinking
Regulative and instructional discourse,
interpersonal metaphor. Literacy,
numeracy, disciplinarity.
Reconstruction and regression
(especially conceptual difficulties
related to grammatical metaphor).
“Utopian
fantasy”,
Hero worship
Puberty
(14;018;0)
Crisis at
Seventeen
Concepts
(including the self)
are now original,
but still closely tied
to concrete, visiographic thinking.
In the USSR, 17
year olds decide
whether to work or
Friendships
(including
sexually charged
ones),
Art (especially
theatre and
literature),
Scientific
discovery
Labor,
School leaving,
True concepts
(concepts
hierarchically
ordered and
volitionally
accessible).
Synoptic and dynamic
complementarity (e.g. horizontal vs.
vertical knowledge structures).
Free will
(recognition of
necessity)
Reconstruction and regression related
to synoptic vs. dynamic
complementarity (e.g. the gap between
(16;617;6)
continue study.
Decision making
the child’s ability in mother tongue
and foreign language).