Microgenetic Change in the Quantity and Quality of Preschoolers’ Private Speech

Abstract

Forty preschool-aged children were videotaped while carrying out paperfolding and story-sequencing tasks, during a series of three experimenta l sessions. During the rst session, participants worked on both easy and dif cult items, and in the second and third sessions they worked on familiar items (the rst session dif cult items, presented repeatedly) and novel items, of each task type. Participants used more private speech on dif cult/novel items than on easy/familiar items, during all three sessions. Private speech production declined across sessions when participants worked on the repeated items. A greater percentage of participants' private speech preceded action when they worked on dif cult/novel items, compared with easy/familiar items. On the paper-folding items, a cross-session increase occurred in the percentage of private speech that preceded action, supporting some of Vygotsky's (1934Vygotsky's ( / 1987Vygotsky's ( , 1978 claims about the emergence of verbal planning in private speech. The potential of microgenetic experimental methodology for research on private speech is emphasised.

Effects of Private Speech on Math Problem Solving Performance of Fifth Grade Male Students

“…The main prediction of Vygotesky is that private speech increases with increased difficulty of task. This prediction was supported in studies on children (Beaudichon, 1973;Duncan and Pratt, 1997;KohLberg et al, 1968) and young adults (Duncan and Cheyne, 2002). Berk and Garvin (1984) deeply investigated Vygotesky's theory.…”

“…Berk (1986) observed that first and second grade students use private speech to guide their thoughts during solving difficult math problems. 4 -6 years old subjects of Duncan and Pratt (1997) used private speech to designwriting tasks and chain story plans. Matuga (2003Matuga ( /2004 observed first, third and fifth grade subjects used private speech to design strategies before working on tasks.…”

Private speech on an executive task: relations with task difficulty and task performance

“…Vygotsky's original (1934Vygotsky's original ( /1987 prediction that private speech will increase linearly with task difficulty has been supported both in studies of children (Beaudichon, 1973;Duncan & Pratt, 1997;Kohlberg et al, 1968) and young adults (Duncan & Cheyne, 2002).…”

“Should I let them talk?”: Private speech and task performance among preschool children with and without behavior problems

“…A variety of different aspects of children's private speech have now been explored, including ontogentic and microgenetic developmental trajectories (Berk, 1986;Berk & Spuhl, 1995;Duncan & Pratt, 1997;Winsler, Diaz, Atencio, McCarthy, & Adams Chabay, 2000), links with adult-child interactions (Berk & Spuhl, 1995;Winsler, Diaz, McCarthy, Atencio, & Adams Chabay, 1999), task and situational influences (Frauenglass & Diaz, 1985;Krafft & Berk, 1998;Winsler, Carlton, & Barry, 2000;Winsler & Diaz, 1995), children's awareness of such speech (Manfra & Winsler, in press;Winsler & Naglieri, 2003), and private speech use within special populations of children (Berk & Landau, 1993;Berk & Potts, 1991;Winsler, 1998). However, an early and central theme of inquiry in this area has been determining the extent to which private speech is helpful to children in terms of either guiding motor behavior or enhancing task performance (Fernyhough & Fradley, 2005).…”