Individual differences in children’s private speech: the role of imaginary companions
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Relations between children's imaginary companion status and their engagement in private speech during free play were investigated in a socially diverse sample of 5-year-olds (N=148). Controlling for socioeconomic status, receptive verbal ability, total number of utterances, and duration of observation, there was a main effect of imaginary companion status on type of private speech. Children who had imaginary companions were more likely to engage in covert private speech compared with their peers who did not have imaginary companions. These results suggest that the private speech of children with imaginary companions is more internalized than that of their peers who do not have imaginary companions and that social engagement with imaginary beings may fulfill a similar role to social engagement with real-life partners in the developmental progression of private speech.
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The possibility that inner speech might provide a medium for interacting with non-present others is consistent with findings that preschool children with imaginary companions are more likely to engage in private speech, suggesting that such speech may have a role in simulating and facilitating social exchanges.
“The possibility that IS might provide a medium for interacting with non-present others [97] is also consistent with findings that preschool children with imaginary companions are more likely to engage in private speech, suggesting that such speech may have a role in simulating and facilitating social exchanges [98].”
From Inner speech as language process and cognitive tool (2023) · cites this paper as [97]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOne implication of Vygotsky's theory, that inner speech is dialogic in nature, has been proposed to be important in domains such as social understanding and creativity.
“One implication of Vygotsky’s theory, that inner speech is dialogic in nature, has been proposed to be important in domains such as social understanding (Davis, Meins, & Fernyhough, 2013) and creativity (Fernyhough, 2008, 2009a).”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Davis, Meins, & Fernyhough, 2013
The Introduction (page unavailable) describes Vygotsky’s account of private speech becoming inner speech and reports that children with imaginary companions show better understanding of others’ perspectives. It does not propose that dialogic inner speech is important for social understanding; it suggests instead that perspective-taking may facilitate imaginary dialogue. The Davis et al. citation is attached to social understanding, not creativity. (LLM, conf=0.79)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredChildren with an imaginary companion used significantly more covert private speech during free play than those without an imaginary companion, a relation that was evident even when controlling for effects of socioeconomic status, receptive language skill, and total number of utterances.
“Children with an IC used significantly more covert private speech during free play than those without an IC, a relation that was evident even when controlling for effects of socioeconomic status, receptive language skill, and total number of utterances.”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Davis, Meins, and Fernyhough (2013)
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Davis, P. E., Meins, E., & Fernyhough, C.
- Affiliations
- Durham University (GB)
- University of York (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Meins, Elizabeth
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-11
- Volume
- 116
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 561-571
- ISSN
- 0022-0965 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3870270
- OpenAlex
- W2145014520
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 55
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 5.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- University of Huddersfield Repository (University of Huddersfield) (acceptedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- Research at York St John (York St John University) (acceptedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Durham Research Online (Durham University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (RES-000-23-1073)
- Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (WT098455MA)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Representations and Identity
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Keywords
- private speech, imaginary friends, children's play, social engagement, imaginary beings, early childhood language development
- MeSH terms
- Child, Child Language, Psychology, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Imagination, Individuality, Male, Speech
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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