Deaf Children's Use of Private Speech
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Contents |
[edit] Language and Cognitive Development
- According to Vygotsky, cognitive development is a process that moves from social level to individual level. This process is enabled by tools of the mind, signs that mediate relations between people. The most important tool of the mind is language due to its communicative functions among people.
- Vygotsky believed that language has two purposes: communication, which is important in the transmission of culture and history between individuals, and regulation, which refers to control over one's own cognitive processes (e.g., thoughts, memory, etc.)
[edit] Private Speech
- “Private speech refers to speech that is spoken aloud but provides no social function; its purpose is to guide and regulate the actions of the speaker rather than to engage a listener in interaction” (Zivin, 1979)
- Private speech is the crucial bridge between the social and psychological worlds. Gradually, the child turns social speech toward the self. Private speech, self-directed speech or egocentric speech, is seen as a transition between the child's learning language in a social communicative context and attempting to internalize it as "private" or "inner speech" (i.e., thoughts).
- According to Vygotsky, private speech does not indicate a cognitive immaturity. To the contrary it is a significant moment in cognitive development of children since young children use language not only for communication with others but also as a tool for regulating thoughts and actions.
- Functions of private speech: Private speech provides clues to mental operations such as self-motivation, focusing attention, planning, monitoring, pacing motor activity, self reinforcement, play, relaxation, expression of feelings, fantasy playing and organizing, transforming, and regulating of thinking or behavior.
- Social origin of private speech: According to Vygotsky, private speech has its roots in the early social experience of children. Socialization activities in childhood, especially mother-child interactions are important for development of private speech and cognitive functions.
- Developmental course of private speech: Social speech (speech addressed to another person) → Private speech → Inner Speech (silent, conscious dialogues that we carry on with ourselves while thinking or acting). Private speech has predictable developmental sequence which proves its universality. Private speech is first used during preschool period, peaks between 5 and 7 years old and gradually decreases during middle to late elementary school years. Children’s use of inner speech increases after that time. Although Vygotsky predicted that private speech period is over when private speech turns into inner speech, other scholars found that private speech also exists in later ages despite of its low frequency. Private speech may reappear every time when a person faces with a difficult, unfamiliar or demanding task. The person externalizes his/her inner speech and uses private speech to overcome the challenging task.
[edit] Questions
- 1)What do parents think about their children's private speech? Do they think that their children's use of private speech is good or not? Do the parents encourage or discourage their children's private speech or just ignore it?
- 2) Some cultures have negative attitude toward the use of private speech in life periods except childhood. Since private speech has beneficial functions, what kind of social changes would bring about the societal acceptance and regular use of private speech for all age groups?
[edit] Jamieson, J.R. (1995). Visible Thought: Deaf Children’s Use of Signed and Spoken Private Speech
- This article investigates the use of private speech among deaf children. As emphasized by Vygotsky, Jamieson tried to define the effects of the different early social environment of deaf children in terms of mother-child interaction on the use of spoken and signed private speech.
- Private sign: Private sign is “a private form of sign language” (Cook and Harrison, 1995). There are some studies which showed that deaf children and deaf adults who use sign language also use private sign or private speech when they engage in the tasks such as writing, reading, or challenging tasks such as exams, or when they are alone.
- Cultural factors, which influence the exposure to early social speech, affect the rate and frequency of the private speech but not the types or developmental stages of private speech.
- Jamieson studied 3 deaf children of deaf mothers and 3 deaf children of hearing mothers since the hearing status of parents is an important variable for the early social interactions and language experiences of deaf children.
- She found that children from both groups used private speech. But deaf children with deaf mothers use more private speech and their private speech occurred in the signed form more frequently and in a more mature form. This is so because of the modality match between deaf children and deaf mothers since they both use sign language, which makes communication earlier, easier and more natural. On the other hand, deaf children with hearing mothers use spoken form of private speech with less frequency and less maturely. This may be due to impoverished early social language experiences which in turn are due to the difficulty in communication between the dyads and domination of the social experience directed by the mother. These factors lead to later cognitive and linguistic development in these children.
[edit] Questions
- 1) If private sign has the same functions as the private speech, should training of private sign be encouraged by the educators?
- 2) Is the developmental course of private sign parallel with private speech?
- 3) What could be the relationship between sign development of deaf children and private sign?
- 4) What could be the other factors, besides language, that affect the cognitive development of deaf children in their early social environment?
