1. Dimitri Carranza & Sylvia Whiteacre Child Growth and Development
Legocentric Speech: A Study of L. S. Vygotsky’s concept of inner speech
Dimitri Carranza & Sylvia Whiteacre
Child Growth and Development
Spring 2009

2. Lev Semenovich Vygotsky
Born 1896 in Western Russia – Belorussia
Law degree at Moscow University
No actual formal training in psychology
Collaborated with Alexander Luria and Alexei Leontiev
Died of tuberculosis 1934

3. Child v. Chimp Guillaime and Meyerson Chimpanzee Age
‘technical thinking’ or practical intelligence
Studies by Buhler, Shapiro and Gerkes, Guillaime and Meyerson
Guillaime and Meyerson
study of people with aphasia
In setting up your slides – try to develop a “logical” statement or point that students can refer back to …
In the case of this slide, you need to be sure to define “technical thinking” and “aphasia” – also put a few key points about the Guillaime and Meyerson study – the critical points that you want to emphasize…

4. Speech Makes the Difference!
Freedom- mediative methods (indirect)
Decreases impulsive and spontaneous operations
Ape- series on incontrollable attempts
Child
Plans through speech
Carries out prepared solution through overt activity
Again, be sure to emphasize key points of difference with regard to speech --

5. Speech Makes the Difference!
Controls child’s behavior
Able to become subject and object of their own behavior
Masters situation with the help of speech, after mastering his behavior (Valsiner & Veer, p.109)
Why do you have a #3 but then do not include the information “masters situation…” as #4…Try to be consistent
Also – how does Vygotsky define “speech”

6. Zone of Proximal Development
Three stages: Situation definition, intersubjectivity, semiotic mediation
Semiotic Mediation
Refers to the use of psychological sign (Psych tools---self) systems developed by the culture to foster communication and thinking (Dixon-Krauss, p.117).
You need a definition of the ZPD – very Vygotsky – as well as an ability to explain it
You need to be able to define the three stages – and explain what the terms mean in terms of ZPD (situation definition, etc.)
You need a better definition of “semiotic mediation” – and be able to explain it.

7. Internalization
The progressive transfer from external social activity mediated by signs to internal control (Dixon-Krauss, p.10)
Object-related, other-regulated, self- regulated
Example: Child learning the hand raising gesture as a sign for acquisition of information (Powell, p.10)
“First it appears between two people as an interpsychological category, and then within the child as an intrapsychological category” (Vygotsky 1981, p.163).
OK – but be able to explain what you mean …

8. Egocentric and Inner Speech
Egocentric speech
The link between external social speech and internal thought (Dixon-Krauss, p.11)
Inner speech
Soundless speech
Thought connected with words and thinking in pure meanings (Vygotsky, Thought and Language, p.149).
Are inner speech and egocentric speech the same? Can you differentiate them??

9. Piaget v. Vygotsky Vygotsky Piaget
Social environment helps child’s cognitive development
Human activity is a result of social learning
Highly variable development
Depends on cultural experience with the environment
Most important source of cognitive development is the child
Child acts independently and discovers what the world has to offer
Universal cognitive change
Be sure that you can explain the difference between Vygotsky and Piaget… in particular what does Piaget say “egocentric speech” is … and what happens to it…and how is it different from Vygotsky’s definition?

10. The Problem
At what age will egocentric speech show dominant representation and when will it become internalized into Vygotsky’s notion of inner speech?
Will the results reflect Vygotsky’s theoretical age range when egocentric speech rises and declines?
Be sure to show the range when egocentric speech rises and declines…

11. Hypothesis
In comparing the use of egocentric speech among the children evaluated, we hypothesized that the closer the child is to ages 5-6, the greater the likelihood that egocentric speech will be evident and increase in accordance to Vygotsky’s theory. OK

12. Setting of Evaluation Children were interviewed in their homes
One child was interviewed at Sylvia’s house
How many children did you evaluate? How old were they? What were their genders? Be sure to explain as much as possible about the setting and the subjects involved in your study.

13. Research Method Homeschooled children ages 5-8 years old
Distributed a Lego kit with modified instructions to the child being tested.
Repeated the following: “Here is a set of Lego building blocks and a set of instructions to build a house. Carefully follow the instructions one page at a time. Completely finish one page before moving on to the next page. Try the best you can and good luck.” OK

14. Research Method
If the child requested help from the instructor, the reply was “Try the best you can to follow the instructions to make the house.”
The instructor helped the child finish the task (if necessary), and thanked the child. OK

15. Lego Task 16 Steps A picture which adds on at each step
Step 6 appeared to be the critical point
Arrows
Be sure to demonstrate Lego task – for the class

16. Scoring of Data Steps for Scoring:
Score the first fifteen minutes of each child.
Oral Speech relevant to task; oral speech not relevant to task; amount of speech in relation to task; speech direction
Add the first two boxes for the overall amount of speech during the task
Make sure that you can explain exactly what you did here – and how you collected data…

17. Scoring of Data Oral speech relevant to task:
What they say that is relevant to the task. 5 (High), 1 (Low).
Oral speech not relevant to task:
Speech not at all relevant to the Legos task. 5 (High), 1 (Low).
Be sure that you can explain exactly how data was evaluated --

18. Scoring of Data Amount of speech in relation to task:
The number of the section (1-3) which included the most speech.
 Speech Direction:
A higher number means that a child is speaking more to themselves, a lower number means that the child is speaking more to me.

19. Age 5 Jake Used much relevant oral speech Ellie
Used little relevant oral speech

20. Age 6 Kyle Continuous narration Pretended the Lego Man was the builder
Veronica
Had to start over on step 6
Joy
Irrelevant stories

21. Age 7 Mary Joy Pointed out threat to validity Noah
No sign of audible speech

22. Age 8
Addie
Signs of sibling rivalry
Isaac
Very confident

23. Results 5 3 1 2 4 Jake (5) Ellie (5) Veronica (6) Kyle (6) Joy (6)
Mary Joy (7)
Noah (7)
Addie (8)
Isaac (8)
Oral speech relevant to task 5 3 1
Oral speech not relevant 2
Amount of speech in relation to task
Speech direction 4
Need to be able to explain what these numbers--

24. Results Younger children talked more
The first five minutes included the greatest amount of speech
Relevancy of speech to task did not seem to affect speech direction

25. Threats to Validity Problems with coloration on the instructions
Outside interference
Irregularities in administration
Subjective analysis of data
Maturation

26. Conclusions
Our findings agreed with Vygotsky in that the younger children used more audible speech
Curvilinear trend
In general, the speech was more relevant than irrelevant
As the task advanced, less audible speech was used
Mastery of instructions
Be sure to be able to explain the notion of less audible speech as the task advanced in relation to the concept of the zone of proximal development….
Be sure to define curvilinear trend …

27. Questions?
Can you put Vygotsky on the Nature – Nurture line and explain why – with quotes and/or explanation from substantitative source.