RELATIONSHIPS AMONG PRIVATE SPEECH AND CREATIVITY MEASUREMENTS OF YOUNG-CHILDREN

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among thought p rocesses represented in young children's private speech and creativity assessments of the same children. A secondary purpose was to study th e role of affective private speech and its association with creativity measures. The sample was 42 preschool and kindergarten children on wh om creativity measures were obtained using the Torrance Thinking Creat ively in Action and Movement (TCAM) assessment instrument. Private spe ech was collected from the same children. Each private speech utteranc e was coded into one of five levels: (a) task irrelevant speech (T-1); (b) nonfacilitative, task relevant speech (T-2); (c) task relevant sp eech (T-3); (d) coping/reinforcing speech (T-4); and (e) solving speec h (T-5). Statistical analysis revealed significant positive relationsh ips among creativity measures, solving speech, and coping/reinforcing speech. Furthermore, coping and reinforcing private speech were consis tently linked with high creativity measures, demonstrating that the af fective domain may play a critical role in creative thinking.