Henri Wallon, French philosopher, physician, and psychologist, has givenpsychology contribution not only with his emotion theory and with hisarguments and disagreements with Jean Piaget. Among his less discussedcontributions are the theory about intelligence, the discussions about the originand development in children’s discoursing thought, and, maybe less known,the reflections and propositions about the transition between sensory-motorintelligence (characterized by the capacity to solve practical problems, butwithout the aid of reflection) and discoursing intelligence (characterized bythe use and intermediation of symbols and representations). It is known thathis proposition for this transition, diversely from Piaget, who emphasizescontinuity and preparation of the symbolic attributes by sensory-motorschematism, is in fact marked by the non-continuity between one intelligenceand the other, by the interference of external elements such as culture, socialaspects, and language, and by the complex interaction between all theseelements. In order to better understand the Wallonian proposal about symbolformation it is necessary, therefore, to study his theory as a whole, trying todecode his concepts on emotion, symbolic behavior, intelligence, developmentfactor, and so forth. In a society like ours, based on symbolic behavior,understanding the way it occurs, its origin, and the development of symbolic thought can be worthwhile. ; Henri Wallon, filósofo, médico e psicólogo francês, contribuiu para apsicologia não apenas com uma teoria da emoção ou ainda com suas discussõese divergências com Jean Piaget. Dentre suas contribuições poucodiscutidas estão sua teoria sobre a inteligência, suas discussões sobre aorigem e o desenvolvimento do pensamento discursivo nas crianças e,talvez menos conhecidas, suas reflexões e proposições sobre a transiçãoentre uma inteligência sensório-motora (caracterizada pela capacidade deresolver problemas práticos, mas sem o auxílio da reflexão) e uma outra,inteligência discursiva ...