Would Vygotsky agree that young children are essentially egocentric?
I think Vygotsky would disagree with the idea that younger children are essentially egocentric. Vygotsky, unlike Piaget who theorized that children are egocentric at specific stages of their development, believed that “the distance between a child’s actual development and their potential development was related to problem solving in a social collaborative environment called the zone of proximal development,” (Miller, pg.376). Vygotsky’s theories are best described as social constructivism, whereas Piaget’s focus was primarily described as cognitive constructivism.

Vygotsky’s theory contends that learning proceeds development and with adult or peer support, learning can be enhanced. This is a shift away from Piaget’s idea of discovery based learning at specific stages being done only by the child. Vygotsky viewed the interactions with peers as an effective way to build strategies and scaffold learning.

Another component which further supports the argument that Vygotsky would not view all younger children as egocentric is that he was a believer in Marx’s psychology. Social transformations of society were central to his thinking. For Marxists there was not a clear separation between the individual and the social. Egocentricity would not have fit as well into this philosophy.
Vygotsky theories went beyond the behavioral aspect that gave support to egocentricity. He believed that a child’s higher mental functions developed through interactions with other people and that socio-cultural-historical factors influenced and contributed to a child’s growing knowledge.

The development of cognition is supported by the role of social interaction. Vygotsky wrote, “Verbal thought is not a natural development but one that is determined by historical-cultural processes” (1986, p.94). Language is learned through the social environment and Vygotsky believed that learning was a social process. He probably would have minimized Piaget’s view on egocentricity. Therefore, I believe that Vygotsky would disagree that children are essentially egocentric.

References:
Miller, P. H. (2002). Theories of Developmental Psychology, 4th Ed. (pp. 367-396; Vygotsky’s Socio-Cultural Approach). New York: Worth.

Piaget, J., Inhelder, B. (1948/1956) The child’s conception of space. London: Routledge and Paul Kegan.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1986). Thought and Language. Cambridge Massachusetts, The MIT Press.