Speech and Development

[AphroditeGoneAwry]

As per the thread on introverts, I discovered this gem of an idea regarding development and speech and I thought it was thread worthy.

Lev Vygotsky: Developmental Theory

The part I am most interested in is the development of speech. Lev Vygotsky, a Soviet psychologist, in contrast to Piaget, argued that our social environment plays a huge role in our learning, and that social learning precedes development (versus development preceding learning); that we do better when taught something versus figuring it out for ourselves.

In regards to speech, Vygotsky states:

Vygotsky (1987) differentiates between three forms of language: social speech which is external communication used to talk to others (typical from the age of two); private speech (typical from the age of three) which is directed to the self and serves an intellectual function; and finally private speech goes underground, diminishing in audibility as it takes on a self-regulating function and is transformed into silent inner speech (typical from the age of seven).

For Vygotsky, thought and language are initially separate systems from the beginning of life, merging at around three years of age. At this point speech and thought become interdependent: thought becomes verbal, speech becomes representational. When this happens, children's monologues internalized to become inner speech. The internalization of language is important as it drives cognitive development.
"Inner speech is not the interior aspect of external speech - it is a function in itself. It still remains speech, i.e. thought connected with words. But while in external speech thought is embodied in words, in inner speech words dies as they bring forth thought. Inner speech is to a large extent thinking in pure meanings" (Vygotsky, 1962: p. 149). ~From article linked above

It got me to thinking about how I personally still use private speech in my adult life. My private speech (talking out loud) never became internalized into inner speech, as he said should happen between the ages of 7 to 10. Which makes me wonder if it was due to traumatic events in my life at that time. My head is quiet except for my conversations with God. I use private speech as they state in the article, more when I am working out a problem or when I have no one to interact with in the way I need.

It also makes me wonder if those people you see walking down the street talking to themselves have this same developmental delay, that they have not progressed to inner speech and are stuck in a private speech zone. We know those people are impaired, but in light of this theory it is interesting to see possibly why.

Regarding this developmental theory and learning/being taught, I DO believe very young children do best at being taught things (Vygotsky) until they get a bit older (12?) and then are turned loose to continue to figure things out for themselves (Piaget). This gives them the best of both worlds.

I think for me, I had the former but not quite in the depth and length I needed, and I had to begin figuring things out for myself a bit too early, therefore I did not progress out of verbal private speech to inner speech, as a child would who had a more normal environment.


Thoughts?


also: it reminds me how learning a foreign language goes. At first you think in words, and it is intentional, but as you become fluent the words become meaning and form themselves.