Private speech: Four studies and a review of theories
Abstract
Similarities and differences in the views of private or egocentric speech held by Piaget, Vygotsky, G. H. Mead, and Flavell are examined. These views are related to previous findings and to four new studies of the effects of age, IQ, and task difficulty upon private speech in various natural and experimental settings. These studies support the interpretation common to all the theorists in that mental age and task difficulty were found to be primary and regular determinants of private speech in contrast to such factors as sex, nationality, or chronological as opposed to mental age. The findings also support Vygotsky's belief that private speech has a curvilinear course of development (due to its functioning as a transition from outer speech to thought) as opposed to Piaget's view that it declines monotonically with cognitive and social maturity. 7 types of private speech are defined and evidence is presented suggesting that they form a developmental hierarchy consistent with Mead's view of the transformations of external communication to inner thought.
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There is evidence to support Vygotsky's claim that self-regulatory speech "goes underground" in middle childhood to form inner speech, with private speech peaking in incidence around age 5 and then declining in parallel with a growth in inner speech use.
“There is evidence to support Vygotsky’s claim that self-regulatory speech “goes underground” in middle childhood to form inner speech, with private speech peaking in incidence around age 5 (Kohlberg, Yaeger, & Hjertholm, 1968) and then declining in parallel with a growth in inner speech use (Damianova, Lucas, & Sullivan, 2012) as defined by Fernyhough and Fradley’s (2005) criteria.”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as Kohlberg, Yaeger, & Hjertholm, 1968
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Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology
Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000021 · Cited by 808 · see citing works
The auditory hallucination: a phenomenological survey
Nayani, T. H., & David, A. S. (1996) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s003329170003381x · Cited by 710 · see citing works
Moser, J. S., Dougherty, A., Mattson, W. I., Katz, B., Moran, T. P., Guevarra, D., Shablack, H., Ayduk, O., Jonides, J., Berman, M. G., et al. (2017) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-017-04047-3 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Individual differences in children’s private speech: the role of imaginary companions
Davis, P. E., Meins, E., & Fernyhough, C. (2013) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2013.06.010 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kohlberg, L., Yaeger, J., & Hjertholm, E.
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1968-09
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 691
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2153153620
- Cited by
- 321
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 17.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Representations and Identity
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Psychology of Development and Education
- Keywords
- private speech, egocentric speech, Piaget, Vygotsky, Mead, Flavell, mental age, task difficulty, IQ, age differences, cognitive development, social development (developmental psychology)
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Child, Child Development, Child, Preschool, Cognition, Echolalia, Ego, Female, Humans, Intelligence, Interpersonal Relations, Language Development, Male, Peer Group, Psychological Theory, Social Behavior, Speech, Verbal Behavior
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