The Dynamic Characteristic of the Zone of Proximal Development in the Abnormal and Normal Development

The article discusses the dynamic characteristics of the zone of proximal development in children when mastering a new activity. We present results of the longitudinal study on zone of proximal development in children with different versions of dysontogenesis and in normally developing children of different age groups. We conducted quantitative analysis of the various tasks performance results after a cycle of training sessions with children. Results indicate that the zone of proximal development in children with dysontogenesis when mastering a new activity is characterized by instability of the achieved results and greater amount of time spent for training in comparison with normally developing children. The comparative analysis has shown that fluctuations in the level of performance of tasks that occur in children with abnormal development are also typical for normally developing children. However, in the latter case, these fluctuations have a stable tendency to smooth out while in children with developmental deviations they remain stable over a long period of time.

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