On The Relationship Between Language And Thinking From The Perspective Of Children 's Psychology

The problem of the relationship between language and thinking receives much attention in the field of linguistics. From ancient times to the present, the experts of different disciplines, fields or genres have discussed and researched this problem by using different theories and methods from different perspectives, and have come up with many research findings. Some experts believe that language appears before thinking, that is language determines thinking, which was represented by Jean Piaget,Lev Vygotsky,Wu Tieping and so on; Some other experts think that thinking comes before language, namely thinking determines language, which representatives are Wilhelm von Humboldt, Edward Sapir, Benjamin Lee Whorf etcetera.This paper reviews the two basic academic ideas about the relationship between language and thinking, in accordance with the law of children’s psychological development, researching the language development in different stages of children from birth to growth, analyzing the children’s language and thinking development stages and its related factors, to explore the relationship between language and thinking. The results show that child aged less than one year old has concrete thinking, but has no language with words. This shows that language does not appear before thinking. The development of thinking is the foundation of language development. This paper is based on Piaget’s theory of children’s cognitive development stage and Vygotsky’s children development view, combined with examples, to prove that the author’s personal opinion of the relationship of language and thinking——language appears before thinking, that is language determines thinking.