Private Speech and Self-Regulation in Children with Impulse-Control Difficulties: Implications for Research and Practice

Abstract

The author considers Vygotsky’s theory of the development of private speech, placing special emphasis on its implications for children with impulse-control difficulties. Research supporting Vygotsky’s view of private speech as having social origins, as being progressively internalized with age, and as serving a self-regulatory function is summarized. The main body of the paper focuses on a series of studies examining private speech in children symptomatic of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children with ADHD show a similar course of private-speech development as do other children. However, they fail to increase their use of task-relevant private speech with task difficulty (as matched controls do), and their internalization of private speech is substantially delayed. Nevertheless, when ADHD children call on it, self-guiding private speech appears to be highly effective in assisting them in mastering highly challenging tasks. These findings are interpreted in light of Vygotsky’s theory and related to Barkley’s assumption that ADHD involves a primary impairment in behavioral inhibition. Practical implications for helping children with impulse-control problems are considered.