Venger Leonid Abramovich
Leonid Abramovich Venger is an outstanding national psychologist who had developed original concept of child’s cognitive development in preschool age.
L.A. Venger was bord in 1925 in Kharkov, Ukraine. After finishing school he went straight to the battlefield of The Second World War. After the war was over he won admission to psychology section of Moscow State University’s department of philosophy in 1946, where he met renowned Russian psychologists, followers of L.S. Vygotsky: A.N. Leontyev, A.V. Zaporozhets, D.B. Elkonin and others. L.A. Venger had always thought highly of the scientific schools of A.N. Leontyev, A.V. Zaporozhets, A.R. Luria, P.Y. Galperin.
L.A. Venger wrote his term papers under scientific guidance of A.V. Zaporozhets, which determined his professional career and got him associated with child psychology for the rest of his life. A.V. Zaporozhets was a teacher for life for L.A. Venger. He had shaped in many ways L.A. Venger’s approach to understanding child development, which represented a further development of L.S. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory. L.A. Venger believed that development of a child is determined by acquisition of the whole system of psychological tools that humanity is developing throughout its evolution. Cognitive abilities were started to be viewed as an established system of operation with psychological tools. Creation of preschool children’s cognitive abilities development theory, along with its detailed description and experimental verification, is L.A. Venger’s great contribution to psychology.
Characteristic feature of L.A. Venger’s scientific work was nonacceptance of experimentally unproved statements. All ststements of his theory were based on experimental work. This quality he had instilled into his co-workers. All laboratory meetings were held with great enthusiasm. L.A. Venger couldn’t stay indifferent to any experimental result – variants of their interpretations and possible lines of further research were discussed for hours.
Laboratory created by L.A. Venger worked as a whole. All its researchers took part in mass experiments, collective studies, conferences and scientific discussions. It was truly a scientific school. Results of its work are reflected in numerous publications (Perception and education (1969), Genesis of sensory abilities (1976), Development of gognitive abilities in preschool age (1986)) and other.
One of the most brilliant ideas of L.A. Venger was his search for key tool of intellectual development of preschool children. Not only he had found and described it, but also he had managed to develop an integral program of intellectual development of preschool children. Visual models were the sought key tool, and development of abilities for visual modeling was stated as the main line of cognitive development. This idea had opened the way for understanding of individual peculiarities of child’s cognitive development (including phenomenon of child giftedness), creation of purposeful system of child development diagnostics which allowed definition of ways of correctional interventions, designing educational system for preschool psychologists.
Development of child’s cognitive abilities theory was an invaluable contribution of L.A. Venger to the science of psychology. Resting upon works of L.S. Vygotsky and A.V. Zaporozhets, he formulated the fundamentals of child’s perception development theory.
According to the theory, perception is a complex, culture mediated process of solving percept tasks. Venger’s approach to the process of development of children’s perception radically differs from the naturalistic one, which describes perception merely in terms of percept system’s stimulation by extrinsical stimuli. Apart from distinction of percept tools and percept actions, his approach instituted a whole new system of sensory education, which is still in use in Russian Federation and abroad.
L.A. Venger worked out a concept of diagnostics of preschoolers’ intellectual development that allowed determining advanced components of preschoolers’ cognitive abilities and underdeveloped ones. All this opened up brand new ways of organizing pedagogic and correctional work with young children.
Child’s perception development theory also is at the heart of training of preschool educational establishments’ practical psychologists. Years of research resulted in creation of a program aimed at development of cognitive abilities, likewise named “Development” (Razvitie). Children who were taught in accordance with this program reached advanced levels of cognitive development. In their early years they became successful in various kinds of childish activities and showed very good results in school years.
The last works of L.A. Venger on development of cognitive abilities were dedicated to the studies of intellectual developement of gifted children. L.A. Venger was the first to organize special education for groups of intellectually gifted preschoolers. Children who mastered Venger and his collaborators’ “Gifted Child” (“Odarenniy rebyonok”) program were not only among the most successful pupils in their schools, but also showed high results after graduation.
Brilliant scientist, L.A. Venger was also an outstanding director and leader. While still taking part in experimental research, he successfully ran Psychology laboratory of APS USSR (Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of USSR). Не also conducted a number of scientific conferences on children’s development.
He attracted talented co-workers, who eagerly did their job and he managed to create a special atmosphere of cooperation that carried literally everyone who knew L.A.Venger close. Venger’s laboratory had drawn many renowned scientists, philosophers, artists, poets and writers.
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