The study of defects, especially in educational and developmental contexts; the branch of learning focused on understanding disorders and impairments in children.
From Latin 'defectus' plus Greek '-logia' (study of). This modern compound term developed primarily in Soviet and Russian educational psychology in the 20th century.
Defectology was actually coined by Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky—he used it to study learning disabilities, arguing that 'defective' children had different but not inferior ways of learning, which was revolutionary for its time and influenced special education globally.
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