At the Confluence of Vygotsky’s Pedological and Defectological Studies: The Child With Intellectual Disability

This study explores the intersection between defectology and pedology by analyzing traditional texts by L. S. Vygotsky, with an emphasis on the ontogenesis of children with intellectual disabilities. To this end, we ask: what is the interrelation between the theoretical principles of studies in defectology and the pedological factors (environment, age and periodization) that affect the development of children with intellectual disabilities? In a further analysis, what kind of nuances should be considered in the periodization process? The aim is to contribute to an understanding of the role of the environment and the nuances of periodization - with special attention to the processes of generalization and the consequences of social isolation - in these children’s development. From this, it can be concluded that: 1. the social environment affects children with disabilities, as it does with all others, in different ways depending on their pedological ages and 2. within the same pedological age, the variables that affect the development of a child with intellectual disabilities, due to the difficulties faced in the generalization processes and, therefore, their relation with the environment can be very different and dissonant when compared to their typical and atypical peers. This conceptual finding raises questions about the periodization developed by Vygotsky in his pedological studies, which, to a large extent, focused on the development of children considered normal.