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

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

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…

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 --

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”

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.

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, 1993. 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 …

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??

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?

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…

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

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.

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

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

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

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…

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 --

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.

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

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

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

Age 8 Addie Signs of sibling rivalry Isaac Very confident

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--

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

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

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 …

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