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Daniil Borisovich Elkonin (1904-1984)

Daniil Borisovich Elkonin was a Soviet psychologist. For many decades he worked in the field of the psychology of the child.

Elkonin studied at the Pedagogical Institute of Leningrad and in 1929 was employed at the same Institute, studying child play issues in association with L. S. Vygotsky. From 1937 until the start of World War II he worked as a teacher in Leningrad and simultaneously taught at the Pedagogical Institute. At that time, shortly before the war, he wrote his graduate thesis on the development of the speech of the elementary students.

During the war Elkonin served in the army. After the war he taught psychology at the Soviet Army Military-Educational Institute. Also, from September 1946, he worked at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian National Academy of Sciences. In 1962 he completed his dictatorial dissertation and in 1968 was elected a Fellow of the USSR Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. He was a longtime teacher at the Moscow University School of Psychology.

Daniil Elkonin in his research on child psychology has dealt with issues of mental development based on the concept of the "dominant activity" which characterizes each growing period. He also studied the psychological issues of child play, as well as the shaping of the child's personality.