Age-related changes in preschool children's systematic use of private speech in a natural setting

This study set out to explore the contexts in which preschool children use private speech, or self-talk, in the naturalistic setting of the preschool classroom, and age-related changes in the contexts in which preschoolers ta lk to themselves. A total of 2752 naturalistic observations of fourteen thr ee-year-old and fourteen four-year-old children were conducted using a time -sampling procedure in two preschool classrooms over the course of one seme ster. Results from logistic regression analyses revealed that both age grou ps were (a) more likely to use private speech during the self-selected acti vity classroom context as opposed to both large group and outside free play classroom contexts, and (b) most likely to talk to themselves when alone, next likely in the presence of peers, and least likely when in the presence of a teacher. Although the probability of private speech among three-year- old children did not vary as a function of the child's immediate activity, four-year-old children's private speech was more likely to occur during sus tained and focused goal-directed activity as opposed to rapidly-changing an d non goal-directed activity. The findings suggest that private speech appe ars systematically in young children and that, in several ways, four-year-o ld children use private speech more selectively than three-year-olds.