[Xmca-l] A practical request (re: memory development)

[Anthony Barra]

Good afternoon ~

I come to you (as a parent and as a teacher) seeking advice and
information, knowing this listserv is one of the best collective resources
on the subject at hand.  Thank you in advance for your thoughts . . .

FIRST, here is the question:

   -

   If a child (age 10) has an underdeveloped memory -- potentially from a
   disruption in the child’s process of development of the higher
   psychological function of memory --  what are some suggestions for A)
   developing this function in non-academic contexts, in order to B) increase
   the likelihood of transfer into academic contexts?


SECOND, here is the theory (and source) behind the question:

   -

   Vygotsky’s “Law of 4 Stages” - https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://tiny.cc/q3p7rz__;!!Mih3wA!XPc6MihE_2JAUm1FVECluRHB-fBm7usjC6m6SkGx3Gzr6clVrtOVLXXkggL7q-oW4gcVJg$  (also, cf. "The
   Problem of the Cultural Development of the Child")
   -

   In place of watching the (very good) 7-minute video, please refer to
   these two excerpts that richly capture the video’s gist:
   -

      From Clip 1 (“Vygotsky’s law of 4 stages”):
      -

         “This is the law that says there are 4 stages of the development
         of every higher psychological function. It gives us a key to
understanding:
         if something goes wrong with the child, if the child has a difficulty,
         maybe one of these stages didn’t go correctly.
         -

            Stage 1 - natural behavior (no use of signs)
            -

            Stage 2 - naive psychology (naive imitation)
            -

            Stage 3 - external signs and operations (beyond crude imitation
            but still reliant on external tools)
            -

            Stage 4 - internal signs and operations (internalized tools;
            decontextualized mediational means)
            -

      From Clip 2 (“How this law can help teachers and students"):
      -

         “Put the child in specially created situations -- might be play,
         game, competition, whatever -- and introduce these tools he
or she probably
         doesn’t have -- and then, having these internal tools, the
child comes back
         to the class equipped with the tools, and now the task will
be much easier
         for the child . . . because the tools are not related anymore to the
         concrete task (in which they were developed).  They are universal.”


With these assumptions in mind (and choosing to accept them at least for
now), here is the question again:

   -

   If a child (age 10) has an underdeveloped memory -- potentially from a
   disruption in the child’s process of development of the higher
   psychological function of memory --  what are some suggestions for A)
   developing this function in non-academic contexts, in order to B) increase
   the likelihood of transfer into academic contexts?


Sincere thanks,

Anthony
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ucsd.edu/pipermail/xmca-l/attachments/20200708/437e7dc9/attachment.html