The model of the dynamic structure of social situation of development is proposed. The orientation activity as the main concept of P.Ya. Galperin’s theory, amounted the basis to discuss the role and the functions of the orienting the image in the social situation of development structure. Orienting the image realizes the child’s activity-effective attitude to the world. The types of the orienting the images are allocated; the age-related specificity of the images is shown. The mechanism of the developing effect of zone of the proximal development is concretized and analyzed.  

The paper analyses theoretical and methodological principles of neuropsychological assessment of preschool children and the most used psychometric methods of preschooler evaluation. Russian battery for preschoolers’ neuropsychological assessment, qualitative analysis and scoring of results was adopted in Portugal. The Portuguese version of this battery follows Luria’s principle of interaction with the examined child with the aim to determine the zone of his proximal development.