Talk:Private speech

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A Historical and Theoretical Overview of Private Speech

Children from about two years old, to about seven years old, can often be observed engaging in "private speech," which is speech spoken to oneself for communication, self-guidance, and self-regulation of behavior [1]. Private speech or “self-talk,” is often thought of in terms of developing early literacy skills and helping to increase a child’s task performance, success, and achievement [1]. Numerous literature trace the idea of private speech back to two, early well-known developmentalists, Vygotsky and Piaget. Both of these psychologists were interested in private speech, mainly in young children; however their views were dissimilar. In 1923, Piaget published a book called, The Language and Thought of the Child [2], in this he recorded his observations of children talking to themselves in classrooms. After examining his data, Piaget termed the idea of self-talk, as “egocentric speech” [3]. Piaget’s concept of egocentric speech was a poor version of social speech. He thought egocentric speech would later develop into a fully mature and effective speech after a child gains a fair amount of cognitive and communicative skills [3]. Vygotsky, also interested in cognitive development, refuted Piaget’s idea of private speech in his book, Thought and Language, written in 1934. Vygotsky did not believe that private speech was a form of immature speech; rather it was a sign of the appropriate cognitive development. Self-talk is an essential part of cognitive development that will help develop crucial skills, such as, communication, self-guidance, self-regulation of behavior, planning, pacing, and monitoring [4]. Vygotsky explains that private speech stems from a child’s social interactions as a toddler, than reaches a peak during preschool or kindergarten when children talk out loud to themselves [5]. Winsler better explains, “the social/cultural tool or symbol system of language, first used for interpersonal communication, is used by the child overtly not for communication with others but for interpersonal communication and self-guidance” [3]. Eventually private speech is mastered in late elementary school years and children start to use inner speech or inner verbal speech, meaning they stop talking out loud [3]. Piaget and Vygotsky were the first two psychologists that brought private speech to attention. Private speech exists in people of all ages, but researchers typically focus on the development of private speech in young children. Piaget’s idea of egocentric speech was the earliest concept of self-talk. Vygotsky’s theory of private speech has been deemed noteworthy to more recent developmentalists, providing an excellent stepping-stone for over 75 years. Berk, Winsler, Diaz, Montero, Neal, Amaya-Williams, and Wertsch are amongst some of the current well-known developmentalists and researchers who have been specializing in the field of private speech. Although the concept dates back to the 1930’s, private speech is still an emerging field in psychology with a vast amount of research opportunities.

Benefits and Uses of Private Speech in Children Much research to date confirms Vygotsky’s theory that private speech provides developmental benefits across many different domains. Above all, private speech aids children in different types of self-guidance and self-regulation [6]. More specific uses and benefits of private speech include: behavioral self-regulation, emotion regulation, cognitive self-regulation and executive functioning, motivation, communication, and creativity. Behavioral Self-Regulation Young children’s behaviors are easily directed by their immediate environment. For example, the presence of an interesting new toy in the preschool classroom is likely to influence a child’s play. Private speech helps children to verbally guide their own behavior and attention by helping them to be more detached from stimuli in their environment. Thus, private speech helps children to be less strongly influenced by their immediate environment and rather, to self-regulate their behavior [3]. The relationship between private speech and behavioral self-regulation is further demonstrated by research showing that children use more private speech when asked to do more difficult tasks or when asked to do tasks without the help of a teacher or parent [3][6]. In other words, in circumstances when more behavioral self-regulation is required of a young child, the child is likely to use more private speech. Finally, private speech has been linked to three-year-olds ability to engage in task-related goals, when explicitly taught to use private speech in this way [3]. Emotion Regulation Young children also use private speech to help them regulate their emotions. One way that children regulate their emotions and comfort themselves through private speech is by mimicking their parents’ comforting speech to them [6]. For instance, a child may help himself calm down for sleep by repeating night-time phrases that his parents have said to him previously to calm him down. Research has shown positive associations between children’s frequency of private speech and their emotion self-regulation skills [3]. Moreover, more advanced emotion-regulation skills were associated with less negative (e.g., self-deprecating) private speech utterances [3]. Other researchers have shown that children who were more and less capable of regulating their own emotions differed in their use of private speech. Those with more advanced emotion regulation were more likely to use private speech [3]. Cognitive Self-Regulation and Executive Functioning Private speech is used by children both spontaneously and as a taught strategy, to enhance memory. Cognitive psychology and executive functioning researchers have studied private speech as a rehearsal strategy, to enhance working memory by maintaining information to be remembered in the phonological loop [3]. Children use private speech to aid their cognitive inhibitory control, the process of suppressing certain responses or information, and rather activating and using other, less readily-available responses or information [3]. Motivation Children use private speech to increase motivation [3]. To do so, children talk to themselves about their goals, as well as about their opinions, feelings, and thoughts of themselves. Research shows a link between this type of motivating private speech and children’s self-efficacy [3]. Moreover, children have been observed using motivational private speech especially during difficult tasks, which is related to positive outcomes on the task [3]. Communication Some researchers have also hypothesized that private speech helps young children to master speech communication with others [7]. To this end, private speech may be a way for children to fully immerse themselves in speech more extensively than they can with others. As such, private speech may help children gain insight about their own communication abilities and build the skills to use speech effectively with others. Creativity Children often use private speech during creative and imaginative play. Research has demonstrated that the more frequently children engaged in private speech, the more creative, flexible, and original thought they displayed [7]. Current Research Research in private speech has now focused on and explored the early developmental precursors of self-regulatory speech. New research has found that infants and preschoolers engage in pointing and private gestures [3]. Research has found that that 12-18 month old infants may have the capability of using two different types of gestures for self-regulatory purposes: pointing and ostensive gestures(hand movements with an object used for one’s own purposes ) [3]. Current research has now also turned its attention to use of self-talk in the early childhood classroom setting and teachers’ practices and attitudes regarding children’s private speech. Many studies have shown that preschool aged children engage in a considerable amount of overt private speech in their early childhood classrooms [3]. Specifically, researchers have found that children use more self-talk when they are busy with a goal-directed task activity (e.g. completing a puzzle). It was also found that preschool aged children were least likely to use private speech in the presence of a teacher [3]. Researchers think this occurs because usually teachers are directing the activity and a child’s behavior at those times [3]. It was also found that preschool aged children were more likely to engage in self talk when they were alone or with their peers. [3] Other new areas of research in private speech include: the role of self-talk in motivation and emotion regulation, children’s awareness of private speech, and parents’ views/beliefs about private speech. Future Directions with Research There have been many methodogical advancements and tools that researchers have designed to better examine more aspects of the role of speech in self-regulation. Some of these advancements include: interviewing techniques that have been developed for specific use in children, new parent interview protocol, and teacher interviews [3]. With this advancement, there will be more research in the future on children’s awareness of inner and private speech. There is also a possibility that researchers will perform additional work on the early precursors of self-talk (e.g. early use of gestures; children’s crib speech). In addition, more research needs to be done in regards to early childhood interventions with children (e.g. diagnosed with ADHD) having trouble with self-regulation). Further, more works needs to be done in order to help researchers better understand the many roles that language performs in the formation of inner and private speech in the development and maintenance of executive functioning and potentially other cognitive capacities. [3] References

1. ^ Winsler, A. Diaz , R. M. Montero , I. (1997). “The role of private speech in the transition from collaborative to independent task performance in young children.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12 (1), 59-79. 2. ^ Piaget, J. (1959). The language and thought of the child. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. 3. ^ Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and Language. ( E. Hanfmann G. Vakar, Editors & Translator). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 4. ^ Winsler, A. (2009). Still talking to ourselves after all these years: A review of current research on private speech. In A. Winsler, C. Fernyhough, & I. Montero (Eds.), Private speech, executive functioning, and the development of verbal self-regulation (pp. 33-41). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 5. ^ Berk, Laura E. “Children’s Private Speech: An Overview of Theory and the Status of Research.” In Vygotsky: Critical Assessments:  Thought and Language, Vol. II, edited by P. Llyod  C. Fernyhough, 33–70. Florence, KY, US: Taylor & Frances/Routledge, 1999. 6. ^ Agres, J. (2012, September 29). Why do children talk to themselves? Retrieved from http://cla.calpoly.edu/~jbattenb/Papers/agres.html 7. ^ Winsler, A. Fernyhough, C. Montero, I. Private Speech, Executive Functioning, and the Development of Verbal Self-regulation. New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press, 2009. — Preceding unsigned comment added by J.l.eisert (talk • contribs) 04:20, 10 October 2012 (UTC)

Any Research On Adult Retention And Its Correlates?
I am an adult and still sometimes use this "private speech" especially if I am working diligently on some assignment for college, it just makes it easier to focus. Is there any research on the psychological ramifications of a child continuing private speech?35.10.217.82 (talk) 12:28, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

Revisions and renomination
Revisions have been made to this article addressing initial issues and I would like to renominate it for good article status — Preceding unsigned comment added by J.l.eisert (talk • contribs) 23:36, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I would suggest that you rename the sections, as I've started, the current size of the names isn't acceptable. --  Zanimum (talk) 20:05, 5 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Also no double caps in section headings. That is, sentence style.  Lova Falk     talk   20:15, 5 January 2013 (UTC)

What about adults?
The article is way too child-specific for a thing people of all ages can experience. SpartaN (talk) 03:51, 19 December 2021 (UTC)


 * The article contains information on Vygotsky and Jean Piaget studying this phenomenon, and they noticed that by puberty this behavior becomes internalized as inner speech. Adults develop an internalized inner speech rather than speaking sounds like a dialogue or monologue. I can't fully understand it, but this private speech is a form of intrapersonal communication. I would need to consult more sources but it might be worthwhile to get a feedback on whether it makes sense to merge this into Intrapersonal communication. Gamma1138 (talk) 06:56, 22 July 2023 (UTC)