Educational Implications of Private Speech for Children’s Problem-solving Abilities

Abstract

This paper analyzes the educational implications of using private speech and discusses whether the instruction and guidance of private speech should be a practical teaching strategy for teachers at school and help students master more skills on how to solve multifaceted tasks. It is crucial to comprehend the definition and characteristics of private speech from the perspective of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories. According to the development trajectory of private speech, the frequency of using it varies with age, tasks, and literacy levels. This utterance is most prevalent from the age of 2 to 6 and declines when children enter elementary school; people are most likely to use private speech while doing tasks of medium difficulty level; adults who received more formal education and have higher literacy levels employ internalized private speech more frequently than those with lower literacy level. Additionally, private speech positively influences children’s executive functioning as well as task performance. Together, these benefits suggest that it is promising to apply scaffolding as a pedagogical method to encourage students to use private speech so that teachers can evaluate students’ competence scope. It is also important to construct supportive adult-children interactions for those with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) to make more private speech with a purpose of improving executive functioning. Future studies about using private should focus more on classroom settings and examine the feasibility of encouraging students to use private speech while solving problems.