In the past decade we have witnessed increased interest on the part of psychologists and educators in developmental and preschool psychology, as well as in the application of psychological findings to the problems of learning disorders. The realization that cognitive development depends upon continuous interaction between the developing organism and the environment gave impetus to the current research on preschool children.
Even a superficial review of psychological literature will reveal worldwide interest in developmental and preschool psychology. Names like Piaget and Inhalder in Switzerland, as well as Bruner and Kagan in the USA, are internationally recognized. Very few Western psychologists, however, will recognize Kostiuk, Zaporozhets or Zinchenko as Ukrainian psychologists. Among Western psychologists they are simply recognized as “Soviet” psychologists. While most Western psychologists recognize that the Soviet Union as a political entity is not identical with Russia, some unfortunately identify psychologists in the Soviet Union as Russian psychologists.
