Glossary / Lexicon

Egocentric speech refers to Piaget’s term for the subset of a young child’s utterances that are non-social - that is, neither directed to others nor expressed in ways that listeners might understand. In Piaget's observation, toddlers use this to control and direct their behavior. The speech is considered egocentric because it is not intended to communicate with anyone else and often doesn't make sense to anyone else. Vygotsky’s intermediate stage of language development, common between ages 3 and 7, during which children often talk to themselves in an apparent effort to control their own behavior. Vygotsky suggested that egocentric speech is a component of the problem-solving function. Please see Inner speech, Social speech, Private speech.