Private speech

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This article is about the form of communication. For the legal concept, see government speech.

Private speech is speech spoken to oneself for communication, self-guidance, and self-regulation of behavior.^[1][2][3] Children from two to about seven years old can be observed engaging in private speech.^[1][2][3] Although it is audible, it is neither intended for nor directed at others.^[4][5] Private speech was first studied by Lev Vygotsky (1934/1986) and Jean Piaget (1959); in the past 30 years private speech has received renewed attention from researchers.^[6] Researchers have noted a positive correlation between children's use of private speech and their task performance and achievement,^[7][8][9] a fact also noted previously by Vygotsky.^[2] It is when children begin school that their use of private speech decreases and "goes underground".^[10]

Contents

• 1 History and theory

• 2 Benefits and uses for children

  • 2.1 Behavioral self-regulation and emotion regulation

  • 2.2 Memory, motivation, communication, and creativity

• 3 Research

• 4 See also

• 5 References

History and theory

Private speech is typically observed in children from about two to seven years old.^[1][2][3] Private speech or "self-talk" is observed speech spoken to oneself for communication, self-guidance, and self-regulation of behavior.^[2] Private speech is often thought to enhance the developing early literacy skills and help to increase a child's task performance, success, and achievement.^[2] Numerous sources trace the first theories of private speech back to two, early well-known developmental psychologists, Vygotsky and Piaget.^[1][3] Both of these psychologists mainly studied private speech in young children, yet they had different views and terms.

In 1923, Piaget published The Language and Thought of the Child.^[4] In this book he recorded his observations of children talking to themselves in classrooms and termed the idea of self-talk as "egocentric speech",^[2] which was the earliest concept of private speech. For Piaget egocentric speech was a sign of cognitive immaturity.^[11] 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.^[2]

In Thought and Language, Vygotsky argued that egocentric speech was a part of normal development of communication, self-guidance, self-regulation of behavior, planning, pacing, and monitoring skills.^[12] Vygotsky explains that private speech stems from a child's social interactions as a toddler, then reaches a peak during preschool or kindergarten when children talk aloud to themselves.^[13] More recently, Winsler argues, "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".^[2] Private speech slows down in late elementary school years and children stop talking aloud, and instead start to use inner speech.^[2]

Vygotsky's theory of private speech has been deemed noteworthy to more recent developmental psychologists, providing a stepping-stone for over 75 years.^[3] Berk, Winsler, Diaz, Montero, Neal, Amaya-Williams, and Wertsch are amongst some of the current well-known developmental psychologists and researchers who have been specializing in the field of private speech.^[1][3][11] Although the concept dates back to the 1930s, private speech is still an emerging field in psychology with a vast amount of research opportunities.^[12]