Re: [xmca] LSV on the preschool stage

[Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu>]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for pointing out this line of work; very interesting. On my quick reading, though, Manfra was asking the children about self-directed speech ("private speech," out loud) rather than about their "inner speech." Here's a clipping: 

"Thus, of the children who admitted they were talking and actually did use private speech (N = 30), 16 (53%) said they were talking to themselves. Five-year-olds had the highest percentage of stating the self as the interlocutor (75%) compared to the 4-year-olds (73%) and 3-year-olds (31%)."

This is from "Preschool children's awareness of private speech," Louis Manfra and Adam Winsler International Journal of Behavioral Development 2006; 30; 537

But perhaps you are referring to a different study? I would find it surprising, though, if 4 year olds were both using inner speech and also aware of this use.

Martin


On Oct 15, 2010, at 12:49 PM, Peter Feigenbaum wrote:

> Martin--
> 
> I empathize with your struggle to both understand LSV's theory and to 
> teach it to others. Humbling is the right word.
> 
> Of the several worthy questions you raise, I can add some useful 
> information to only one of them: the issue about speech going inner twice.
> 
> A recent study by Lou Manfra (now at Florida International University, but 
> formerly a student in Adam Winsler's private speech lab at George Mason 
> University) revealed some surprising information about the development of 
> inner speech--it occurs much earlier than we thought. He worked with 30 
> preschoolers and their mothers to find out exactly when the children 
> became aware that they could talk inside their heads, and lo, and behold, 
> the age was almost uniformly 4 years and two months!  The timing of this 
> phenomenon reminded me of the study conducted by Ivanova in 2000 that 
> examined the development of children's control of voluntary movements 
> (Ivanova, E.F. The development of voluntary behavior in preschoolers: 
> Repetition of Z.V. Manuiolenko's experiments. Journal of Russian & East 
> European Psychology, Vol 38(2), Mar-Apr 2000, pp. 6-21). She asked 80 
> children (aged 3-7 years) to stand still for as long as they could, and 
> recorded how long they could hold a frozen pose. Results showed that time 
> in poses increased with age. Voluntary control over movements was 
> undeveloped in 3-4 year-olds, first began to show up in 4-5 year-olds, and 
> became stable and automatic in 6-7 year-olds. Although Ivanova was 
> particularly interested in showing that the children's ability to hold a 
> pose for a longer time was negatively influenced by distraction and 
> positively influenced by the verbal suggestion that they "pretend to be a 
> statue", I think the important lesson for the current discussion is that, 
> neurologically, inhibitory control washes over children in temporal waves. 
> The fact that children become aware of inner speech (almost universally) 
> at 4 years and two months of age fits right in with the fact that the 
> first signs of voluntary control over behavior appear in 4-5 year-olds. 
> Thus, I tentatively conclude from these data that the **physical** 
> development of inner speech is tied to neurological development. 
> 
> Furthermore, there is a neurological pathway that connects the vocal 
> chords to the inner ear, and this pathway is present early in life 
> (although I can't remember where I learned this, unfortunately). What that 
> means is that, when we speak aloud, we not only can hear our own voice 
> coming back to us through our ears, but also through an **internal** 
> (intracranial) channel that shunts the signal right to the inner ear. 
> Thus, the picture that emerges is the following: The physical development 
> of inner speech is the product of nervous system inhibition in which the 
> social speech activity of producing plosions of air that are passed over 
> the vocal chords is repressed, leaving the internal connection between 
> vocal chords and inner ear untouched. Consequently, we can *think* words 
> and *hear* them without any of the process being audible.
> 
> As for the issue of the **functional** internalization (or 
> interiorization, involution, intravolution) of personal speech, LSV claims 
> that this occurs between ages 7-8, and is part of a developmental 
> transition from private speech to inner speech. This transition depends 
> entirely on the completion of the psychological process of abbreviation of 
> private speech. While the timing of this functional internalization has 
> not been confirmed and is by no means certain, from the scant evidence we 
> have, it seems to occur a very long time after inner speech has come into 
> existence--which makes me wonder just what children are saying to 
> themselves in inner speech during this period! 
> 
> For more precise information on the physical basis of inner speech, you 
> might want to check out the following book: Intrapersonal Communication: 
> Different Voices, Different Minds, by Donna Vocate (1994, Lawrence 
> Erlbaum).
> 
> I hope this response is helpful. 
> 
> Best wishes,
> Peter
> 
> Peter Feigenbaum, Ph.D.
> Associate Director of Institutional Research
> Fordham University
> Thebaud Hall-202
> Bronx, NY 10458
> 
> Phone: (718) 817-2243
> Fax: (718) 817-3203
> e-mail: pfeigenbaum@fordham.edu
> 
> 
> 
> Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu> 
> Sent by: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
> 10/14/2010 04:42 PM
> Please respond to
> "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> 
> 
> To
> "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> cc
> 
> Subject
> Re: [xmca] LSV on the preschool stage
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On the issue of speech becoming 'inner physiologically,' here are the 
> results of an hour's Googling.
> 
> The principal brain region involved in speech production is Broca’s area. 
> The principal brain region involved in word recognition is Wernicke’s 
> area. Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are connected by a bundle of nerve 
> fibres: the arcuate fasciculus. Lesion studies confirm that it is involved 
> with language. It is much larger in adult humans than in chimps or 
> monkeys. MRI studies of children from 4 to 17 have found increase the 
> white matter of this link with age, and only in the left hemisphere.
> 
> Rilling, J. K., Glasser, M. F., Preuss, T. M., Ma, X., Zhao, T., Hu, X., 
> et al. (2008). The evolution of the arcuate fasciculus revealed with 
> comparative DTI. Nature Neuroscience, 11(4), 426-8.
> 
> Paus, T., Zijdenbos, A., Worsley, K., Collins, D. L., Blumenthal, J., 
> Giedd, J. N., et al. (1999). Structural maturation of neural pathways in 
> children and adolescents: in vivo study. Science, 283(5409), 
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