The Language and THought of the Child Author:Jean Piaget For many years, the processes of language and thought of the child baffled all philosophers, biologists, and psychologists who tried to deal with them. Finally, Jean Piaget, influenced by the work of James, Dewey, Freud, and Durkheim, organized previous theory and directed it ot a new interpretation of the child's mentality. Instead of the tra... more »ditional view that the child's mental growth depends merely upon quantitative addition of experience, Pieget believes that the development of language and thought is primarily qualitative-that the character of the chil'd mental activity alters the kind. Today, there is little doubt that Piaget's work in The Language and Thought of the Child has established a new direction in the investigation of the mental apparatus.« less