Vygotsky's socio-cultural theory holds that cognitive development is largely driven by social interaction, where a child learns through guided interaction with more knowledgeable others within the Zone of Proximal Development, and this learning then leads to internal developmental change.

Because social interaction actively promotes cognitive growth, Vygotsky argued that learning (occurring through social engagement) precedes and drives development, reversing the order proposed by theorists who saw development as a prerequisite for learning.

Conditioning replacing reasoning, reflexes dominating, and maturation controlling learning are not part of Vygotsky's theory; these ideas belong to other frameworks such as behaviorism or maturationist theories.

Hence, according to Vygotsky, learning precedes development because social interaction promotes cognitive growth.