“He [Vygotsky] proposed that psychologists should investigate the relationship between thought, action, communication and culture. Vygotsky described language as having two main functions. As a communicative or cultural tool we use it for sharing and jointly developing the knowledge – the “culture” – which enables organized human social life to exist and continue. He also suggested that quite early in childhood we begin to use language as a psychological tool for organizing our individual thoughts, for reasoning, planning and reviewing our actions. […] Vygotsky claimed that it is the capacity for “verbal thought” which most significantly distinguishes our intellect from that of others animals. Another key feature of his account of children’s psychological development was the idea that the two functions of language, the cultural and the psychological, are integrated. […] As Vygotsky put it: “Children solve practical tasks with the help of their speech, as well as with their eyes and hands”.” (pp. 9-11)
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