SELF TALK

Self Talk

Self Talk

Researchers have learned a variety of things about children's use of private speech by observing children's use of self-talk in naturalistic settings and by analyzing videotapes of children of different ages working on problem-solving tasks in structured laboratory settings. First, self-talk is normal, natural, and healthy for children (and adults), and such speech is indeed helpful. Interestingly, young children themselves appear to know this because they report positive effects about their own use of self-talk. Second, people tend to use private speech when they need the extra help to get a task done, either because the task is particularly challenging or because they are cognitively, emotionally, or motivationally spent. Thus, a common pattern is to see increased private speech use in children when the task activity they are engaging in gets more difficult, as if the private speech becomes an extra tool they use to overcome obstacles. Also, children's use of private speech can be influenced by others around them. Children who are exposed to rich language environments at home and at school and are cognitively stimulated and advanced compared with their peers appear to use private speech earlier and internalize their speech earlier (have it replaced with whispers and inner speech) than children from different environments.

The implications for teachers and parents of the research on private speech are relatively clear. Researchers typically recommend that teachers allow, if not encourage, children to use private speech in the classroom, as long as it is not too loud and disruptive to other children, because it is a natural and effective learning tool for youngsters and because quieting down children who find it useful to spontaneously talk out loud to themselves during their work typically hurts their performance. Teachers and parents can also learn a lot about what children are thinking ...