PLAY AS THE NATURAL MEDIUM OF DEVELOPMENT, OR ON A LUDIC MODEL OF THINKING THROUGH LANGUAGE1
PLAY AS THE NATURAL MEDIUM OF DEVELOPMENT, OR ON A LUDIC MODEL OF THINKING THROUGH LANGUAGE1

Summary/Abstract: This article proposes an integrated theoretical model of cognitive development through language, grounded in the thesis that play constitutes the natural and constitutive medium of this process. The argument is built on three interdependent theses: (1) play is inscribed in the human condition as a primary need – demonstrable through paleoanthropological, neurobiological, and philosophical evidence; (2) language itself has the structure and logic of a game – a position supported by the philosophy of language (Wittgenstein) and structural linguistics (Saussure); (3) verbal play is the mechanism through which language and thought mutually co-construct each other – in accordance with Vygotsky's theory of the unity of verbal thought. On this theoretical basis, five categories of verbal ludic instruments are described and analyzed – phonological and prosodic games, semantic games, narrative games, morphosyntactic games, and metalinguistic games – along with the specific cognitive mechanisms through which each category enhances thinking. The conclusion is that verbal ludic instruments are not auxiliary activities within the educational process, but the natural form in which language is acquired, experimented with, and internalized, while thought is simultaneously constructed alongside it.

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