This study set out to explore the contexts in which preschool children
use private speech, or self-talk, in the naturalistic setting of the
preschool classroom, and age-related changes in the contexts in which
preschoolers talk to themselves. A total of 2752 naturalistic observations
of fourteen three-year-old and fourteen four-year-old children were
conducted using a time-sampling procedure in two preschool classrooms
over the course of one semester. Results from logistic regression analyses
revealed that both age groups were (a) more likely to use private speech
during the self-selected activity classroom context as opposed to both
large group and outside free play classroom contexts, and (b) most likely
to talk to themselves when alone, next likely in the presence of peers, and
least likely when in the presence of a teacher. Although the probability
of private speech among three-year-old children did not vary as a
function of the child's immediate activity, four-year-old children's
private speech was more likely to occur during sustained and focused
goal-directed activity as opposed to rapidly-changing and non goal-directed activity. The findings suggest that private speech appears
systematically in young children and that, in several ways, four-year-old
children use private speech more selectively than three-year-olds.