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.