Private speech (PS) – or speech for the self – was studied in preschool-age
children to determine how widely and with what characteristics it occurs when examined in the
familiar home setting. Activities were selected that required several steps and that were intended
to engage working memory or longer term recall. Both quantitative (numbers of words and
utterances produced) and qualitative (utterance type) analyses were conducted on the
children's PS. Across the age range from 4 ½ to 6 years, younger children had
higher frequencies of PS than older children, which fits the predictions made by Vygotsky
(1958/1962, 1978). Increased information loads resulted in more PS, indicating a relation
between PS and task difficulty; however, total quantities of PS were not correlated with degree of
task success. Self-regulatory utterances accounted for 89% of the PS produced; the
majority of these utterances involved repetitions of the instructions that appeared to enhance
recall, to help pace the children's activity, or to enable deliberation with respect to making
choices. There was a strong age trend in which the amount of audible PS decreased with age.
Qualitative differences across tasks are presented and considered in relation to how PS functions
for different activities and possibly achieves adaptive significance.