Private Speech, Executive Functioning, and the Development of Verbal Self-Regulation

Adam Winsler is Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. His research interests are private speech and the development of self-regulation in typical children and those with ADHD and/or autism; bilingual language development; and early childhood education and the transition to school for ethnically and linguistically diverse children in poverty. He is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association, and he is editor of the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly. He is also co-author of the book Scaffolding Children's Learning: Vygotsky and Early Childhood Education (1995). Charles Fernyhough has written extensively on the implications of Vygotsky's theory, particularly for the emergence of verbal mediation in the preschool and early school years. He has previously co-edited a four-volume collection of critical assessments of Vygotsky's work (1999). He has been involved in three major longitudinal developmental studies with samples in Cambridge, Stoke-on-Trent, and Stockton-upon-Tees, along with several studies of psychosis-like symptoms in healthy adults and children. Recent articles have included work on the neuropsychology of voice-hearing, the stress–diathesis model of schizophrenia, and a Vygotskian approach to the phenomenon of auditory verbal hallucinations. His introductory book on developmental psychology, A Thousand Days of Wonder: A Scientist's Chronicle of His Daughter's Developing Mind, will appear in the United States in 2009. Ignacio (Nacho) Montero is Associate Professor of Research Methods in Psychology and Education at the Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain. He has studied motivation in education from a socio-cultural perspective, and his work has extended the mediational role of private speech to emotional processes. He has recently edited the book Current Research Trends in Private Speech: Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Self-Regulatory Functions of Language. Also, he engages in considerable editorial activities for Spanish-language journals in psychology and education (Anuario de Psicología, Estudios de Psicología, Revista de Psicología, International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology).

• Preface Laura Berk; Introduction/Overview Adam Winsler, Charles Fernyhough and Ignacio Montero; Part I. Overview, Theoretical, and Biological Foundations: 1. Still talking to ourselves after all these years: a review of current research on private speech Adam Winsler; 2. Dialogic thinking Charles Fernyhough; 3. The executive functions of language in preschool children Ulrich Müller, Sophie Jaques, Karin Brocki and Philip David Zelazo; 4. The neuropsychology of covert and overt speech: implications for the study of private speech in children and adults Simon Jones; Part II. Language, Communication, Social Cognition and Awareness: 5. Talking and thinking: the role of speech in social understanding Jeremy Carpendale, Charles Lewis, Noah Susswein and Joanna Lunn; 6. Private speech and theory of mind: evidence for developing functional relations Charles Fernyhough and Elizabeth Meins; 7. Development of communicative competence through private and inner speech Peter Feigenbaum; 8. Private speech in the framework of referential communication Conchi San Martín Martinez, Humbert Boada and Maria Forns Santacana; 9. Preschool children's awareness and theory of speech Louis Manfra; 10. Younger children's knowledge about overt and covert private speech John Flavell and Adrian A. Wong; Part III. Symbols and Tools Throughout the Lifespan: 11. Private pointing and private speech: development of executive function Begoña Delgado, Juan Carolos Gómez and Encarnación Sarriá; 12. Symbols as tools in the development of executive function Stephanie Carlson and Danielle M. Beck; 13. On the persistence of private speech: empirical and theoretical considerations Robert M. Duncan and Donato Tartulli; 14. Private speech beyond childhood: testing the developmental hypothesis José Sánchez-Medina, David Alarcón Rubio and Manuel de la Mata; Part IV. Motivational and Educational Applications: 15. Private speech and motivation: the role of language in a sociocultural account of motivational processes David J. Atencio and Ignacio Montero; 16. Creativity and private speech in young children C. Stephen White and Martha Daugherty; 17. Early childhood teacher's awareness, beliefs, and practices toward children's private speech Carla Deniz; Afterword James Wertsch.

“The first topic that caught my attention as a graduate student was the developmental relationship between language and thought. Although I didn't go on to make significant contributions to this literature, my fascination with the topic persisted. This edited volume by Adam Winsler, Charles Fernyhough, and Ignacio Montero brings together chapters by researchers who have examined different aspects of the connection between private speech and cognition, extending considerably the range of topics that behavioral scientists examined when I was in graduate school. The early chapters provide updated theoretical foundations for making sense of the chapters that follow, which provide a thorough review of what researchers know and believe about the developmental relation between language and thought. This will be an essential book for anyone interested in this important topic of cognitive developmental research.” —David F. Bjorklund, Florida Atlantic University