Egocentric Speech

Egocentric speech is a very unique and interesting concept that occurs in young children. The inclusion of the word 'ego' in the term egocentric suggests that it is something to do with self. Which is of course true. Egocentric speech is a kind of speech that is carried out with oneself, not necessarily addressing anyone in particular. This kind of speech is seen to occur in very young children, typically those in the age group of 3-5 and it is said that it is used as a means of learning speech, since children do not know how to think internally and then speak. As they grow, the instance of this speech becomes lesser and lesser and in a year or two it completely vanishes. Such that they learn how to internalize their thoughts, think about what they want to say and then speak. There are several theories that surround this concept and that is what we will be getting into in the article that follows.

To give an example - observe a young child at play and you'll find that a child has the tendency of talking to himself and literally giving a commentary of what they are doing. While feeding a doll, for example, they'll say something like 'Now I'm going to feed the doll'.

What is Egocentric Speech

While we now know that egocentric speech is something that makes for an integral part of child development in the sense of language development in children, we need to also know that there are several theories that surround this concept. Let's take a look at these theories and understand what they mean as an important part of psychology.

Jean Piaget's Theory
Jean piaget was a renowned psychologist who observed children and formulated the concept of egocentric speech. This form of speech is a part of Piaget's stages of development. He said that when a child was born and began to learn how to speak, he exhibited this speech such that he would talk to himself without addressing anyone in particular. He always used loud speech, even when talking to himself and not addressed to anyone in particular. This happened because he had not yet learned to be social, which needed him to take others view points into consideration or understand what the others were saying. Thus he did not know how to effectively communicate with others and resorted to egocentric speech. Piaget also said that as the child grew, he would learn to be a part of the social arena and then develop proper means of communication such that egocentric speech would fade away and be replaced by social speech.

Vygotsky's Theory
Vygotsky was another psychologist who observed the behavior patterns of children and then deduced certain theories on this concept. His viewpoint was different from Piaget's. Vygotsky said that children used this form of speech because they had not yet developed the concept of internalizing their thoughts and because he did not understand the concept of being able to think his thoughts through, deduce them and then speak. He was in the process of learning and therefore the constant instructions that were passed onto him were verbalized loudly without processing them. Vygotsky also believed that the child was a social creature to begin with and did not become social with time. He said that all the actions, babbling and words that the child started out with when learning to speak and communicate for the first time. The child therefore has always been a social creature. And in that way he opposed the theory of Piaget who said that the child learns to be social with time and then learns to communicate with others. Vygotsky also said that egocentric speech is not replaced by social speech but gradually develops into it.

In the years to come, a combination of both these theories was made and the term egocentric speech was replaced by private speech, which was considered to be a more acceptable term.