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Individual differences in children’s private speech: The role of imaginary companions

Davis, P.; Meins, E.; Fernyhough, C.

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Authors

P. Davis

E. Meins



Abstract

Relations between children’s imaginary companion status and their engagement in private speech during free play were investigated in a socially diverse sample of 5-year-olds (N = 148). Controlling for socioeconomic status, receptive verbal ability, total number of utterances, and duration of observation, there was a main effect of imaginary companion status on type of private speech. Children who had imaginary companions were more likely to engage in covert private speech compared with their peers who did not have imaginary companions. These results suggest that the private speech of children with imaginary companions is more internalized than that of their peers who do not have imaginary companions and that social engagement with imaginary beings may fulfill a similar role to social engagement with real-life partners in the developmental progression of private speech.

Citation

Davis, P., Meins, E., & Fernyhough, C. (2013). Individual differences in children’s private speech: The role of imaginary companions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 116(3), 561-571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2013.06.010

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Nov 1, 2013
Deposit Date Jun 19, 2014
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Print ISSN 0022-0965
Electronic ISSN 1096-0457
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 116
Issue 3
Pages 561-571
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2013.06.010
Keywords Private speech, Imaginary companions, Play, Internalization, Social interaction, Imagination.

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.





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