In the Vygotskian theses of the internalization of social speech as a key point in the emergence of verbal thought, one of the most important aspects is what is known as private speech: that is, verbal productions that seem to regulate and guide the action underway (Vygotsky, 1934/1987). Traditionally, this process was studied with children engaged in tasks in non-communicative contexts. However, an approach of this kind may not account for a key point in Vygotskian theory: the emergence of private speech associated with requests for help from other persons present.

We aimed to study the progressive differentiation between autoregulatory and heteroregulatory utterances through an analysis of private speech in a communicative situation in which children were asked to communicate unambiguously a series of objects.

In a longitudinal study we observed ten pairs of boys and girls at 4, 6 and 8 years in the presence of an adult, engaged in a referential communication task.

Among our results, we found that at 6 and 8 years there is a greater sensitivity to communicative ambiguity, resulting in a greater presence of autoregulatory forms. Similarly, we found that the sources of cognitive challenge were not only defined in the difficulty of the referent per se, but are clearly related to the intervention of the other person.

Private speech seems to be a useful tool to understand the links between metacognition and children’s collaborative processes. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of relocating the study of private speech in the context of a task under way, and advocate the use of methodologies and data analyses that allow us to understand these processes in all their complexity.

Within the vast domain of human communication, our specific interest concerns children’s communicative processes in which cognitive, linguistic, and social abilities are closely related (Shantz, 1983). The linguistic instrument occupies a privileged place, since it allows us to control our interactions with others, and thus we are able to adapt ourselves to the two main functions of these interactions: being informative and being persuasive. Likewise, this communicative competence provides us with the control over our own behaviour when we act as encoders and decoders of our own messages (Berk, 1992; Flavell, 1981).

An important body of research on public and private communicative functions can be found which starts from the classic studies on egocentric/private speech related by Piaget (1923/1962) and criticized by Vygotsky (1934/1987). While Piaget did not assign this type of speech any useful function, Vygotsky stressed its importance in the control and progressive planning of behavior through a process of internalization of social speech. Subsequently, far from failing to fulfill a useful function, private speech shows the progressive possibility of regulating one's own behaviour. This speech is seen as a form of inner dialogue, with its own characteristics, where a single word can come to concentrate a sizeable amount of information for private use (Duncan & Cheyne, 2002).

Traditionally from a vygotskian perspective, the emergence of private speech was studied with children engaged in tasks in non-communicative contexts. It was found that the more difficult the task, the greater the prevalence of private speech (Winsler, de León, Carlton, & Willson-Quayle, 2003). However, an approach of this kind may not account for a key point in Vygotskian theory: the emergence of private speech associated with communicative development (San Martín, Boada, & Forns, in press)

We aim to study the progressive differentiation between autoregulatory and heteroregulatory utterances through an analysis of private speech in an communicative situation in which children are asked to communicate unambiguously about series of objects (Boada & Forns, 2004). In a longitudinal study we observed ten pairs of boys and girls at 4, 6 and 8 years in the presence of an adult, engaged in a referential communication task that emulates an scholar activity. Private speech is made operational in terms of its audibility and content, related or unrelated to the referent. Audible expressions are contrasted with silences within the communicative exchange. The audible expressions refer to repetitions in the chain of speech or to changes and rectifications completing or modifying given information that may involve semantic changes (Centeno & Jiménez, 2004).

The results indicate an increase in the set of private verbal forms between ages 4 and 6, after which they remain constant. If we consider the development of the different forms of private speech, we should highlight the progressive increase in silences during the formulation of messages between 4 and 8. These findings reflect a greater degree of explicit regulation over the communicative activity being performed between 4 and 6, with a tendency towards internalization between 6 and 8 years. We also approach these issues using sequential analysis (Theme program, Magnusson, 1996). We find that at 6 and 8 years the sources of cognitive challenge are not only defined by the difficulty of the referent per se, but are clearly related to the intervention of the other person (i.e. questions from the partner), promoting in both cases the emergence of private forms. The results suggest a progressive development of communicative awareness, which manifests itself in a dual process: in the growth of private speech into message formulations and the improvement of communicative abilities (such as improved message quality, more active intervention of the listener, and a decline in the number of interventions by the adult).

In conclusion, private speech seems to be an useful tool to understand the links between metacognition and children’s attemps to communicate unambiguously. We emphasize the relevance of relocating these questions in a educational context. One of the important points to deepen is how the possibility of exercising an active, deliberate control over an activity is linked to heterorregulatory processes (Wertsch, 1985).