THE THEORIES OF WALLON,HENRI - FROM ACT TO THOUGHT

A major theme of contemporary thought in cognitive and communication sciences is the psychological status and functions of representational activities. The current interest in Vygotsky's theory can be interpreted in such a framework. The work of the French psychologist Henri Wallon (1879-1962) also figures in this framework. Wallon, considered in France as one of the founding fathers of child psychology, like Vygotsky focused on the creative nature of the psychological processes relating action and representation. He examined these processes as they develop in the course of the child's acquiring understanding and control of the physical and social universe, considered both at the individual level and in the making of human history. Wallon was among the first psychologists to systematically study the development of representational systems, beginning at the sensorimotor level and extending through all other forms of human activity to the level of complex symbolic systems, including scientific thought.