Language Development

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Recommended: Private speech in children

Ever walk past a child who is engaged in an activity while talking to themselves out loud? If so, do not worry, after reading this research paper you will understand it is perfectly normal. Language has many dynamics including: words, private speech, inner speech, syntagmatics, paradigmatics and much more. According to Craig and Dunn (2010) by age three, most children can use 900 to 1,000 words; by age 6, most children have a productive vocabulary of 2,600 words and can understand more than 20,000 (pg. 161). Some children I work with who are in the toddler room are able to talk, but leave out the pronouns a sentence. For example a child would say, “Us go on walk?” Language and cognitive development go hand in hand, as children learn about their world they also learn how to talk and communicate with themselves as well as others.

An important part of development within language is private speech. According to The Motivational Function of Preschooler’s Private Speech (2000) Vygotsky stated the primary goal of private speech is to communicate with one’s thought process and actions. I remember when my brother was a little boy—about four years old, he was babbling to himself and I thought he was crazy; that was until my mother told me I did the same thing when I was his age. According to Craig and Dunn (2010) children between the ages of four and eight have been observed talking to themselves about 20 percent of the time in school that allow it (pg. 162). I find this observation to be true because preschool I have walked into I always see at least one child talking to themselves while working on a difficult problem. I found it interesting that the article mentioned about in schools that allow children to use private speech, as a tea...

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...amples of when one thinks of going grocery shopping your mind gets the imagery of the produce market and the item one needs to get automatically, it is not necessary to say all the words.

I have learned so much about language and the way children develop their language skills early in life. I find language development one of the most amazing subjects to learn about, now that I have read more about language I think I want to change my career pathway, I still want to work with children but not teaching. I can imagine myself being a speech pathologist, I feel like I have gained a great sense of knowledge about how children develop their language skills and move from private speech to inner speech in the zone of proximal development with help from parents and others around them. I love to encourage children to be the best they can and always support their dreams.

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