"The present volume ties together one major phase of Vygotsky's work, and though its principal theme is the relation of thought and language, it is more deeply a presentation of a highly original and thoughtful theory of intellectual development. Vygotsky's conception of development is at the same time a theory of education. The book is, in many ways, more programmatic than systematic. It is at times distressingly swift in coming to conclusions that are reasonable in that special twilight shed by commonsense observation. But even then, the common sense Vygotsky brings to his task is not from the armchair but from incessant observation of children learning to talk and learning to solve problems. Vygotsky's untimely death cut off a developing stream of experiments; yet his work is only now beginning to be reflected in the vigorous activity of contemporary Soviet psychologists and linguists. This book includes a comment section at the end by Jean Piaget." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).