Piaget: Concepts before words; and Egocentric Speech before social speech

Researchers from Europe traditionally followed a Gestaltist mode of research, observing behavior and then describing it. In my mind Piaget was the consummate Gestaltist. His observations and conclusions are widely studied throughout the educational commu

Originally, Piaget was a biologist. He observed many mollusks patiently for hours and meticulously noted their behavior, and then suddenly realized that it matched thebehavior of some of his teenage children. Actually, come to think of it, that was my own dad, who was a pest control exterminator, and was commenting on the behavior of slugs. Sorry Piaget!

But Piaget did observe many children to provide us with some valuable insights into their cognitive and language development. No course on Language Development can pass muster without some notes on Piaget’s observations.