by Muminah Hakeem
Does your child chatter on and on, all by themselves during playtime and other activities? Do they mumble to themselves and say random words and phrases while they concentrate on daily tasks? Are you concerned that this habit might be showing early signs of behavior and speech development problems? If your answer is “yes”, then this post is for you!
Talking to yourself can be a normal, everyday activity for most people, yet holding an entire conversation alone and with just yourself can definitely come off as creepy and unusual, especially when you do it out loud. However, this is a very common practice for toddlers and children between the early ages of 2-7 years, which is a transformational period in a child’s language learning process and early development.
This behavior of talking to oneself is referred to as private speech or self-talk, and it plays an important role in a child’s communication and cognitive skills’ development.
Why do children self-talk?
In the early 20th century, the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky introduced the concept of self-talk to describe children’s behavior of talking to themselves, and identified it as an important and effective way in which children learn to regulate or control their behavior, their actions and their emotions. Vygotsky observed that engaging in self-talk while performing various tasks can help toddlers and young children plan their actions, solve problems and control their impulses more successfully. Therefore, talking to themselves is considered an important and extremely common behavior during the early communication and cognitive development stages of children.
Vygotsky also suggested that even though children’s self-talk begins as external speech, where children speak their thoughts out loud, they slowly and gradually learn to internalize this behavior as they grow, until it becomes a form of inner speech. Inner speech is the regular internal dialogue that adults maintain inside their minds in order to regulate their thoughts and actions.
Children self-talking out loud, therefore, should not be a cause for concern, as it is only the initial stage of what adults continue to do inside their heads for the rest of their lives!
How does self-talk improve language skills?
Studies and research on children’s behavior of self-talk have revealed that most healthy children start talking to themselves around the age of 2-4 years, and they typically become aware of their own self-talk only a few years later. During this age, children are just beginning to understand their ability to communicate through language, and during this process of experimenting with new words and sounds, it is crucial for them to practice speaking and engaging with language as much as possible.
This is where self-talk can act as a useful tool. On the one hand, it helps young children regulate their thoughts, emotions and complete tasks easily, while on the other hand, it also creates more opportunity for them to use language, express ideas and practice their speech during every-day activities like drawing, writing, playing and having meals. Very often, children learn to speak by imitating what they hear around them, and self-talk gives them an opportunity to repeat words and phrases that they hear from adults while engaging in simple tasks. This helps them learn and remember vocabulary and grammar structures easily and perform better at their tasks at the same time.
Children self-talk at different instances and rates, and while it is most common among toddlers, kindergarten and primary school children, every child has their own way of talking to themselves. Research indicates that self-talk can help improve the ways in which children with learning disabilities and behavior problems engage with their tasks. For example, children with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) often practice more self-talk, as it helps them focus more on their tasks while directing their energy towards speaking out their thoughts throughout the process.
How to deal with self-talk?
If you are wondering how to react to your child’s continuous solo-conversations, then the best action that you can take is to simply allow them to keep going. While it is recommended that self-talk should not be discouraged, you can also support your child’s language learning experience by engaging in self-talk yourself.
Parents and caretakers can help their child’s language development by practicing self-talk and parallel-talk. Here, self-talk refers to talking about what you are doing at that very moment, while parallel-talk refers to talking about what your child is doing. Both these strategies are proven ways of assisting children’s language development at an early age.
Finally, whether you are an adult or child, how you talk to yourself will always reflect on your self-esteem. Therefore, parents and caretakers must also remember to encourage positive self-talk as much as possible, in order to allow children to remain happy and confident during their communication and cognitive development process.