Ava Welty

Foundations of Psychological Science

Nov 13, 2022

APL 5 Private Speech

Private speech is speech spoken to oneself for many different things, including

communication, self-guidance, and behavior. Private speech is put simply, thinking aloud.

Vygotsky, a researcher heavily involved with child psychology, studied private speech. He found

that children use private speech to guide and control their behavior. As children grow and

develop, private speech helps these children continue to regulate and understand their behavior.

To Vygotsky, language is a self-contained system for children to maintain their identity and

growth.

In my own personal life, I use private speech. Private speech for me is used in many

aspects of my life, but typically is used for me to remember and regulate myself. If I am trying to

remember to bring something, I will remind myself aloud. If I am confused on something, often I

will talk through my issues to myself. This helps me work through whatever problems I am

having all by myself.

Self-talk for myself serves the same purpose as it does for children in many ways. For

both me and children, self-talk is used to regulate and understand behavior. In myself and in

children, we are both talking through something misunderstood or needing emphasis. We both

are using self-talk to help ourselves through our own behavior. This is the key similarity between

self-talk for me and children.

 However, for myself, self-talk is not necessary. I can chose to not use self-talk, while for

some children it is necessary, this makes It different from my self-talk. Self-talk is a tool for me

and is not need. This factor of how necessary it is the key difference.