Why Do Children Talk To Themselves?
Whether you are a parent, teacher, child care giver, or a child observer you may have noticed that many children talk to themselves. Laura Berk reports that, “private speech can account for 20-60 percent of the remarks a child younger than 10 years makes” (78). Why do children do this? Does it benefit the child as Vygotsky would say, or is it just that the child is making egocentric remarks that play no positive role in normal cognitive development as Piaget would claim? I am going to be looking at the differences between Vygotsky’s and Piaget’s points of view. Then, I will look at Laura Berk’s findings in her article, “Why Children Talk to Themselves.” I will also talk about other findings concerning this topic.
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky were developmental psychologists interested in the origins and processes of cognitive development. These two psychologists disagreed sharply on the role that private speech played in one’s cognitive development. Vygotsky called this private speech while Piaget called it egocentric speech.
Piaget observed the activities of three to eight year old kindergarten children, and discovered such uses of speech as verbal repetitions of another individual, monologues during an activity, and non-reciprocal remarks in collective settings. In these instances their speech was not directed towards other individuals. In Piaget’s mind these patterns of speech showed evidence of egocentrism, a sign of cognitive immaturity, and an inability to share the perspective of another individual. However, he argued, as the children grow older they socialize increasingly more with others, and their speech becomes communicative. Their speech moves away from being self- to other-oriented, a sign that they are able to adopt the perspectives of others. A child overcomes egocentrism by beginning to think critically and logically, causing egocentric speech to fade away.
Vygotsky believes that a child’s cognitive development originates in socialization activities, and then goes through a process of increasing individuation. He argued that self-directed speech did not show any cognitive immaturity, but did show some form of development. He claims that private speech represents a functional differentiation in the speech of a child, or that a child begins to differentiate between speech that is directed towards the others and speech that is self-directed.
Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two of the most well known cognitive psychologists who addressed cognitive development and learning among children and youths. While there are similarities, contrasts do exist between the two theories, and those contrasts are vital to the comprehension and application of the theories, especially in an educational setting.
The notorious witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts occurred from June through September. It is a brief, but turbulent period in history and the causes of the trials have long been a source of discussion among historians. Many try to explain or rationalize the bizarre happenings of the witch hunts and the causes that contributed to them. To understand the trials and how they came to be, we must first examine the ideals and views of the people surrounding the events. Although religious beliefs were the most influential factor, socioeconomic tensions, and ergot poisoning are also strongly supported theories. A combination of motives seems the most rational explanation of the frenzy that followed the illness of the two girls. This paper looks closely at the some of the possible causes of one of the most notable occurrences in history.
In the year 1692, the small farming village of Salem, Massachusetts saw a social phenomenon that would propel the village into the history books: the calamity that was witchcraft. The witch trials were initiated whenever three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam were caught performing fortune telling rituals in the woods, trying to gather information on what type of man would be best for them. Soon thereafter, the girls began experiencing hysterical fits, prompting Betty Parris’s father, Reverend Samuel Parris, to call in the authorities to confirm the cause of the girls’ symptoms. ...
The Salem witch trials, an event in colonial Massachusetts between 1692-1693 occurred in present day Danvers, Massachusetts, once known as Salem Village. This paper will validate Salem’s witch trials having a very immense influence on the U.S. today; such as the trial’s religious, philosophical, political, and ethical impact on our nation today. Life in Salem Village was harsh, farming was difficult, an epidemic of smallpox was killing families, and all misfortunes were seen as the Devil's work. Puritan lifestyle was a strong influence for the trials; they had a strong belief in the devil and witchcraft and made up a great number of the Massachusetts population. Salem was divided into two parts, Salem Village and Salem Town. Residents from both living areas were abundantly different. The people of Salem Village were commonly pauper farmers at a disadvantage by living in rocky terrain while those living in Salem town were mostly wealthy merchants.
Although witch trials were not uncommon in Puritanical New England, none had reached such epidemic proportions as Salem. In 1691 the mass hysteria began when several young girls dabbled in witchcraft and began acting strange. When villagers took notice the girls were seriously questioned and so they began naming people, mainly woman, who had supposedly bewitched them (Boyer, p66). Several other who had been accused were woman displayed ‘unfeminine’ behavior and those who
Lev Vygotsky stages of development were not defined by age or biology. Social and cultural experiences were the basis for his theory. Consciousness was an end product of social interactions (Kearsley, 1994-2010). The history of the child’s society and his own personal history determine how the child thinks. Language is crucial for development as it is with words that a child conceptualizes and makes sense of the world (Schütz, 2004). A precept of Vygotsky’s theory wa...
Armstrong, Karen/ Hill, Frances. A Delusion of Satan. The Full Story of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishers, 1995. Ashley, Leonard R.N. The Devil’s Disciples. New York: Barricade Books Inc., 1996. Briggs, Robin. Witches & Neighbors. New York: Penguin Books Ltd.,1996. Brown, Richard D. Massachusetts, A History. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1978. Ferres, John H. (Ed.) 20th Century Interpretations of The Crucible.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1972. Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman. New York:Vintage Books, 1987. The Salem Home Page. The Salem Witch Trials 1692. www. salemweb. com/memorial/. September 25, 1998. Famous American Trials. Petitions Relating to the Trials of Rebecca Nurse. www. law. umkc. Edu /faculty /projects /ftrials/ salem/ ASA_ LETT.htm American Fanaticism. Witch Hunts and Special Persecutions. www.rjeib.com/thoughts/puritan.html Salem Witch Hysteria. Salem Witch Trials. Salem@nationalgeographic.com
Vygotsky placed much more emphasis on language that Piaget (book). Vygotsky’s theory focuses on the role of interpersonal processes and the role of the child’s community and culture which provide a framework from which the child’s construction of meaning develops (book). Although Vygotsky stressed that the process must be in in the context of the child’s culture and the tools available within that culture. Vygotsky was always especially interested in cognitive processes which underline understanding which has led to the concept of shared understandings that occur when people communicate with each other. Vygotsky argued that through the use of language formed through social interaction a child can develop as a thinker and a learner (book). As a conscious individual people could not accomplish very much without the aids and tools within their culture such as language (book). Piaget argued that language was strongly influenced by the underlying cognitive structures within the individual child (book). They also disagreed on the egocentric speech of children. When observing children Piaget concluded that half of the mistakes children made was down to egocentric speech which he argued showed that children have not tried to communicate with another or adapted so others can understand them he also argued that young children did not seem to care if anyone else could understand them and
Blumberg, Jess. “A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials.” Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, 24 Oct. 2007. Web. 08 Feb. 2012.
John M. Murrin’s essay Coming to Terms with the Salem Witch Trials helps detail the events of these trials and explains why they might have occurred. The witch trials happened during a “particularly turbulent time in the history of colonial Massachusetts and the early modern atlantic world” (Murrin, 339). Salem came to be in 1629 and less than seventy years later found itself in a mess of witch craft.
The Salem, Massachusetts Witch Trials have generated extensive evaluation and interpretation. To explain the events in Salem, psychological, political, environmental, physical, and sociological analysis have all been examined. The authors Linnda Caporael, Elaine Breslaw, Anne Zeller, and Richard Latner all present differing perspectives to speculate about the events of the Salem Witch Trials. This changing interpretation and perspective has resulted in an extensive historiography to explain the
According to Piaget Child C’s thinking could be considered as self centred, he’s at an age (4) where he thinks his views are right and others are wrong. According to Piaget children within the age range of 2 – 6 are in the preoperational stage, at this age children are not yet able to comprehend reasoning, they are unable manipulate information hence the reason why they tend to make statements such as ‘he or she is not sharing’ or ‘it’s not fair’ or ‘I’m not your friend’, this sort of behaviour is referred to as egocentrism.
Piaget underlined that the pre-operational stage can be described as the stage of the concentrated egocentrism. We could notice these features in practice. Moreover, this stage is said to be devoted to the abilities of children. They are rather limited because the mental activity is influenced by life experience and emotions. Therefore, the conclusions concerning the practical aspect of the theoretical study are made.
2013). Communication skills, issues focusing, trust building, establishing a structure for management of conflict in an integrated organizational environment are considered for conflict resolution method. The author has presented types of conflict, explanation of conflict resolution, benefits of conflict, reasons of conflicts, conflict resolution strategies and also mentioned how to prevent and effectively resolve conflict. However, the main objective of this journal is to focus concept of conflict. Thakore, D. (2013) has mentioned that conflict cannot be avoided because it is an inevitable part of the teams and outcome of the behaviors. When people interact, conflict arises thus it is an integral part of the human life (Thakore, D. 2013). Expression of hostility, negative attitudes, antagonism, aggression, ego, rivalry and misunderstanding are the causes of the conflict (see also, Schellenberg, 1996). Conflict has been studied over centuries with different approach solutions however more methodical and rational studies were started since twentieth centuries. As academically, political anthropology, part of social anthropology, marked as publication of “African Political Systems” in 1940 started review “conflict” part and flourished as conflict resolution approach by Fortes and Evans- Prichard (Thakore, D. 2013). As a theoretical discourse, conflict
Jean Piaget’s cognitive theory states that a child goes through many set stages in his or her cognitive development. It is through these stages that the child is able to develop into an adult. The first of these stages is called the sensorimotor period in which the child’s age ranges from 0-2 years old. During this sensorimotor period of a child’s development, the child’s main objective is to master the mechanics of his or her own body. Towards the end of this period, the child begins to recognize himself as a separate individual, and that people and objects around him or her have their own existence. The child, however, does not have a sense of object permanence meaning that when an object is taken away, the child no longer believes that that object actually exists. As the child nears the end of this period of development, he may seek an item that has been hidden in the location where he or she last saw it, but does not look elsewhere (Smith). During the preoperational period, which lasts from age 2-7, the child has come a long way in his or her cognitive development since his or her birth. In this period, the child has a very basic understanding of the inner workings of his or her mind and is ready to interact with their environment in a more symbolic way. A limitation during this period is known as egocentrism. The child has a hard time realizing that though there are many other people and things in their world, none of them are more important that the child himself. The child believes that his point of view is the only point of view of the world. This is caused by his inability to put himself in someone’s else’s shoes (Smith). The concrete operational period, spanning between the ages of 7 and 11, is marked by the onset of logic to the young mind. The child is able to mentally manipulate objects and events. In other words, he or she can imagine squashing a clay ball ...