... without language human thought would be limited to what could be learned through actions or images. A second view, as represented by Piaget (1950), takes the opposite position, namely that language is dependent on, and reflects, the level of cognitive development; language is a tool to be used in the course of operational thinking. A third view regards thought and language as originally quite separate activities which come together and interact at a certain point of development (about two years old) and is associated with Vygotsky (1962). Until the end of infancy, it is possible to encounter precursors of language that seem unrelated to intellectual operations (such as babbling) and elements of thought that occur without any language (such as actions,perceptions or images). However, the intermingling of language and thought provides the child with a uniquely human form of behaviour in which language becomes intellectual and thinking becomes verbal. How then ...

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