ABSTRACT
Word meanings evolve during childhood: it cannot be assumed that when a child uses a word he or she means by it what adult speakers would mean. Vygotsky believed that mastery of the written language — learning to read and write — had a profound effect upon the achievement of abstract thinking. It was a brilliant insight on Vygotsky’s part to realise that when speech for oneself becomes internalised it is in large part because the child, in handling the freer forms of speech that constitute that mode, begins to be capable of carrying out mental operations more subtle than anything he or she can put into words. Vygotsky’s central contention becomes clear — the claim that human consciousness is achieved by the internalisation of shared social behaviour. Speech begins as a shared social activity on the part of the child and becomes a principal means of the mental regulation and refinement of his individual behaviour.
