Drawing, thinking, meaning

"Rational, intentional conveying of experience and thought to others requires a mediating system, the prototype of which is human speech born of the need of intercourse during work" (Vygotsky, 1962, p. 6). This paper will outline the basic principles underlying one of Vygotsky's theories; that language plays a central role in mental development. Using one child's series of drawings as an example, I will describe how an adaptation of this theory has provided me with a tool for analyzing children's drawing. While Vygotsky listed a range of mediation tools such as symbols, algebraic systems, art, writing, and diagrams, oral language was the primary mediation tool on which he focused his studies. For Vygotsky language was a meaning-making tool that was uniquely human. While "language" is the word commonly used in translations, in fact "speech" might be a more accurate translation. Vygotsky proposes that it is in "word meaning" that thought and speech join to become verbal thought and that through the study of meaning making we might find ways to understand children's thinking. He proposes that it is, "in meaning (that the) answers to our questions about the relationship between thought and speech can be found" (Vygotsky, 1962, p. 5).