(This is a topic I posted on another forum, but there are some here in the Gulch that could use its educative qualities:)

First study in child development by Piaget, published in 1923. His observations I'm sure are accurate and correct; I may not always agree with his interpretation. These excerpts from his first chapter will be added to later:

To begin: Chap. 1, excerpts:

"...the very existence of such questions shows how complex are the functions of language, and how futile the attempt to reduce them all to one, that of communicating thought.

"The functional problem therefore exists for the adult. How much more urgently will it present itself in the case of defective persons, primitive races, and young children. Janet, Freud, Ferenczi, Jones, Spielrein, have brought forward various theories on the language of savages, imbeciles and young children all of which are of the utmost significance for an investigation for such as we propose to make of the child's mind from the age of six.

"The psychoanalysts have given an...explanation of word magic. The word, they say, having originally formed part of the act, is able to evoke all the concrete emotional contents of the act."

"...the fact remains that many expressions which for us have a purely conceptual meaning retain for many years in the child mind a significance that is not only affective but also well-nigh magical or at least connected with peculiar modes of behavior which should be studied for themselves and quite apart from adult mentality".

[As for this last, a good example is how the word 'bloodbath' was seized upon by the Left and used to frighten more primitive people.]

Later I will add more, especially demonstrating the case where children will suppose, in their minds, that their unique words and behavior are shifted to another child and do it unconsciously. And also, in this same regard, how a child during his satellization period---around the age of four---says and does what Mom or Dad do, without realizing he is 'plagiarizing'.

Part II:

Chapter 1; grouping language of children

Two main groups:

1. Ego-centric: this talk is ego-centric partly because the child is speaking only about himself, but chiefly because he DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO PLACE HIMSELF AT THE POINT OF VIEW OF HIS HEARER. The child asks for no more than an apparent interest, though he has the ILLUSION (except perhaps in pure soliloquy if even then) of being heard and understood. There are three categories of ego-centric speech:
a. Repetition (echolalia)
b. Monologue---the child talks to himself as though he were thinking aloud
c. Dual or Collective Monologue: an outsider is associated but is not expected to attend. The point
of view of the other person is never taken into account.

2. Socialized speech, consisting of:
a. Adapted information: a true exchange of thoughts, either telling his hearer something that will
interest him, or an actual interchange of ideas by argument or by collaboration
b. Criticism: all remarks made about the work or behavior of others but having the same
character as adapted information; they assert the superiority of the self but depreciate others
c. Commands, requests, and threats
d. Questions
e. Answers


All of this will be leading to the understanding of how children's (and some other folks) language and thought is SYNCRETISTIC, as is the thought and language of some primitives: non-discursive, using imagery, and using analogy, but without using reason.

Stay tuned. [Caps all mine].