Oral and inner behaviour in syllabes decoding at the begining of learning to read - Purpose : The young child, when he begins to learn to read, and when he tries to decode syllabes has a propensity to decompose verbaly the two terms of that syllabes. He first expresses aloud the sound /p/, then sound /a/, before expressing the syllabe-sound « pa ». This need of vocal extériorisation disappears progressively with age and school training. — Technique : We have studied by longitudinal method the regression of this exteriorised behaviour (continuous observation of 179 normal scholl children) during three consecutive years, from five to eight years old. This study has been done taking into account mental maturity level (Q.I.) and considering the different types of exteriorised behaviour : loud voice and intermediate behaviour (i. e. whispers, articulate motions of lips, quivering of lips). — Results : Perfect intériorisation (reading « at once » of syllabes without decomposition, without vocalization and without motions of mouth is reached at age of 7 years 1 month for forward children (Q.I. 139-110), ot 7 years 7 months for normal children (Q.I. 109-90) ; it is not yet reached for retarded children (Q.I. 89-70) at the end of our observation period. When children become older, the « intermediate » behaviour tends to remplace the loud voice behaviour.

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