Vygotsky has identified significant features or periods in the development of children. During certain ages, the child exists within a development phase where his conceptual processes and social actions require certain types of mediation from his peers and the adults around him. These Vygotsky calls periods of stability. Eventually, the child reaches the end of one age and goes through what Vygotsky has termed a critical period, where his social interactions and conceptual processes undergo change. At this point, the child exhibits behaviour that is different than that which preceded it; the child's interaction with the rest of society and with himself is altered, because his thinking has changed. The importance of understanding these periods is to understand how children continue to build on the making of meaning from level to level, always moving to a higher level in each period. The total process occupies most of the child's first twenty years of life, with critical periods appearing at the end of the first year of life, and subsequently at ages 3, 7, and 12-13. After the final age period, adolescence, children end their formal education and take up their roles as adults. In order to understand the significance of adolescence, one has to examine the features of each of the preceding periods, as they have bearing on what happens during that final stage.
And on it goes... I am going out for a BIG drink on Saturday night.
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Others have posited similar theories of development. Maybe Vigotsky was first. I remember being enthralled with similar stuff when I was doing my masters. (NB now cannot remember the names and I'm too lazy to go search them out!) I'm thinking that the theorists I read didn't make it quite as challenging as "V" to get the drift of what they were trying to say. Have a great Saturday and congrats on finishing this course.
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