Thinking about self-talk: a case study in children's private speech

Initiated in 1923 by Jean Piaget's speculations about developmental properties of private speech, the topic of children's private speech has been an avid research topic for almost a century. The present case study attempted to combine the various research traditions, from Vygotskian research, strategy and information processing research to cognitive developmental & executive control-oriented research on children's private speech. In order to do so, a bilingual three-year-old child was routinely recorded while engaged in private speech for seven months; the recorded data was then transcribed, and its content were analyzed. The presence of Directive (planning), Descriptive, Narrative and Repetitive properties were observed, and implications in strategic planning in the private speech were discussed.