The phenomenon of a child's egocentric speech has been thoroughly and quite often discussed in psychology. If we talk about speech in general, then it contains the external, internal and sensual aspects of human consciousness. Therefore, in order to understand what the child thinks about, what he is like inside, you should pay attention to his speech.
Some parents become anxious when their baby says unrelated words, as if mindlessly repeating everything he heard from someone. It can be uncomfortable when you try to figure out why he said this or that word, and the child is simply not able to explain it. Or when a child speaks with an interlocutor, as if with a wall, in other words, practically to nowhere and not expecting either an answer, much less understanding. Parents may have thoughts about their child developing a mental disorder and about the dangers that such a form of speech hides.
What is egocentric speech really? And should you worry if you notice signs of it in your child?
What is egocentricspeech?
One of the first scientists who devoted a lot of time to the study of children's egocentric speech, and also discovered this concept itself, was Jean Piaget, a psychologist from Switzerland. He developed his own theory in this area and conducted a number of experiments with young children.
According to his findings, one of the obvious external manifestations of egocentric positions in a child's thinking is precisely egocentric speech. The age at which it is most often observed is from three to five years. Later, according to Piaget, this phenomenon almost completely disappears.
How is this behavior different from normal baby talk? Egocentric speech is, in psychology, a conversation directed towards oneself. It manifests itself in children when they speak aloud without addressing anyone, ask themselves questions and do not worry at all that they do not receive an answer to them.
Egocentrism itself is defined in psychology as a focus on personal aspirations, goals, experiences, lack of focus on the experiences of other people and any external influences. However, if your baby has this phenomenon, you should not panic. Much will become clear and will not be scary at all with a deeper consideration of the research of psychologists in this area.
The developments and conclusions of Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget in his book "Speech and Thinking of the Child" tried to reveal the answer to the question of what needs the child is trying to satisfy by talking to himself. During his research, he came up with severalinteresting conclusions, but one of his mistakes was the assertion that in order to fully understand the way a child thinks, it is enough to analyze only his speech, since words directly reflect actions. Later, other psychologists refuted such an incorrect dogma, and the phenomenon of egocentric language in children's communication became more understandable.
When Piaget investigated this issue, he argued that speech in children, as well as in adults, exists not only to communicate thoughts, but also has other functions. In the course of research and experiments carried out in the "House of Babies", J.-J. Rousseau and J. Piaget managed to determine the functional categories of children's speech. For a month, careful and detailed notes were kept of what each child spoke about. After careful processing of the collected material, psychologists identified two main groups of children's speech: egocentric speech and socialized speech.
What can this phenomenon tell about?
Egocentric speech is manifested in the fact that, when speaking, the child is not at all interested in who is listening to him and if anyone is listening to him at all. What makes this form of language egocentric is, first of all, a conversation only about oneself, when the child does not even try to understand the point of view of his interlocutor. He needs only a visible interest, although the child most likely has the illusion that he is understood and heard. He also does not try to have any effect on the interlocutor with his speech, the conversation is conducted solely for himself.
Types of egocentric speech
It is also interesting that, as Piaget defined, egocentric speech is also divided into several categories, each of which has different features:
- Repetition of words.
- Monologue.
- "Monologue for two".
The selected types of egocentric children's language are used by babies in accordance with a specific situation and their momentary needs.
What is repetition?
Repetition (echolalia) involves the almost thoughtless repetition of words or syllables. The child does this for the pleasure of speech, he does not quite comprehend the words and does not address anyone with something specific. This phenomenon is the remnants of infantile babble and does not contain the slightest social orientation. In the first few years of life, the child likes to repeat the words he hears, imitate sounds and syllables, often without putting any special meaning into it. Piaget believes that this type of speech has a certain similarity with the game, because the child repeats sounds or words for fun.
What is a monologue?
Monologue as egocentric speech is a child's conversation with himself, similar to loud thoughts aloud. This type of speech is not directed to the interlocutor. In such a situation, the word for the child is associated with action. The author highlights the following consequences from this, which are important for correctly understanding the child's monologues:
- while acting, the child (even alone) must speak and accompany games and various movements with words and cries;
- accompanyingwords a certain action, the baby can modify the attitude to the action itself or say something without which it could not be carried out.
What is a "monologue for two"?
"Monologue for two", also known as a collective monologue, is also described in some detail in the writings of Piaget. The author writes that the name of this form, which the egocentric children's speech takes, may seem somewhat contradictory, because how can a monologue be conducted in a dialogue with an interlocutor? However, this phenomenon is often traced in the conversations of children. It manifests itself in the fact that during the conversation, each child attaches the other to his action or thought, without striving to be truly heard and understood. Such a child never takes into account the opinion of the interlocutor; for him, the opponent is a kind of exciter of the monologue.
Piaget calls the collective monologue the most social form of egocentric varieties of speech. After all, using this type of language, the child speaks not only for himself, but also for others. But at the same time, children do not listen to such monologues, because they are ultimately addressed to themselves - the baby thinks aloud about his actions and does not set himself the goal of conveying any thoughts to the interlocutor.
Contradictory opinion of a psychologist
According to J. Piaget, speech for a small child, unlike an adult, is not so much an instrument of communication as an auxiliary and imitative action. From his point of view, the child in the first years of life isa self-facing closed creature. Piaget, based on the very fact that the child’s egocentric speech takes place, as well as on a number of experiments, comes to the following conclusion: the thinking of the baby is egocentric, which means that he thinks only for himself, not wanting to be understood, and not striving to understand the mindset of the interlocutor.
Research and conclusions of Lev Vygotsky
Later, conducting similar experiments, many researchers refuted Piaget's conclusion presented above. For example, Lev Vygotsky, a Soviet scientist and psychologist, criticized the Swiss opinion about the functional meaninglessness of a child's egocentric speech. In the course of his own experiments, similar to those performed by Jean Piaget, he came to conclusions that, to a certain extent, contradict the initial statements of the Swiss psychologist.
A new look at the phenomenon of egocentric speech
Among the facts derived by Vygotsky about the phenomenon of children's egocentrism, the following can be taken into account:
- Factors that impede certain activities of the child (for example, pencils of a certain color were taken from him while drawing), provoke egocentric speech. Its volume in such situations almost doubles.
- Besides the discharge function, a purely expressive function, and the fact that the child's egocentric speech often simply accompanies games or other types of children's activities, it can also play another important role. This form of speech contains the function of forming a certain plan for solving the problem.or tasks, thus becoming a kind of means of thinking.
- The egocentric speech of a baby is very similar to the inner mental speech of an adult. They have a lot in common: imaginative thinking, an abbreviated train of thought, the impossibility of understanding by the interlocutor without the use of additional context. Thus, one of the main functions of this phenomenon is the transition of speech in the process of its formation from internal to external.
- In later years, such speech does not disappear, but turns into egocentric thinking - inner speech.
- The intellectual function of this phenomenon cannot be considered a direct consequence of the egocentrism of a child's thought, because there is absolutely no connection between these concepts. In fact, egocentric speech quite early becomes a kind of verbal formulation of a baby's realistic thinking.
How to react?
These conclusions seem much more logical and help not to worry too much if the child shows signs of an egocentric form of communication. After all, this type of thinking does not speak of focusing solely on oneself or social ineptness, and even more so is not some kind of severe mental disorder, for example, as some quite mistakenly confuse it with manifestations of schizophrenia. Egocentric speech is only a transitional stage in the development of the child's logical thinking and eventually turns into an internal one. Therefore, many modern psychologists say that the egocentric form of speech is notyou need to try to fix or cure - it is absolutely normal.
