Re: [xmca] LSV on the preschool stage

[Peter Feigenbaum <pfeigenbaum@fordham.edu>]

Martin--

I empathize with your struggle to both understand LSV's theory and to 
teach it to others. Humbling is the right word.

Of the several worthy questions you raise, I can add some useful 
information to only one of them: the issue about speech going inner twice.

A recent study by Lou Manfra (now at Florida International University, but 
formerly a student in Adam Winsler's private speech lab at George Mason 
University) revealed some surprising information about the development of 
inner speech--it occurs much earlier than we thought. He worked with 30 
preschoolers and their mothers to find out exactly when the children 
became aware that they could talk inside their heads, and lo, and behold, 
the age was almost uniformly 4 years and two months!  The timing of this 
phenomenon reminded me of the study conducted by Ivanova in 2000 that 
examined the development of children's control of voluntary movements 
(Ivanova, E.F. The development of voluntary behavior in preschoolers: 
Repetition of Z.V. Manuiolenko's experiments. Journal of Russian & East 
European Psychology, Vol 38(2), Mar-Apr 2000, pp. 6-21). She asked 80 
children (aged 3-7 years) to stand still for as long as they could, and 
recorded how long they could hold a frozen pose. Results showed that time 
in poses increased with age. Voluntary control over movements was 
undeveloped in 3-4 year-olds, first began to show up in 4-5 year-olds, and 
became stable and automatic in 6-7 year-olds. Although Ivanova was 
particularly interested in showing that the children's ability to hold a 
pose for a longer time was negatively influenced by distraction and 
positively influenced by the verbal suggestion that they "pretend to be a 
statue", I think the important lesson for the current discussion is that, 
neurologically, inhibitory control washes over children in temporal waves. 
The fact that children become aware of inner speech (almost universally) 
at 4 years and two months of age fits right in with the fact that the 
first signs of voluntary control over behavior appear in 4-5 year-olds. 
Thus, I tentatively conclude from these data that the **physical** 
development of inner speech is tied to neurological development. 

Furthermore, there is a neurological pathway that connects the vocal 
chords to the inner ear, and this pathway is present early in life 
(although I can't remember where I learned this, unfortunately). What that 
means is that, when we speak aloud, we not only can hear our own voice 
coming back to us through our ears, but also through an **internal** 
(intracranial) channel that shunts the signal right to the inner ear. 
Thus, the picture that emerges is the following: The physical development 
of inner speech is the product of nervous system inhibition in which the 
social speech activity of producing plosions of air that are passed over 
the vocal chords is repressed, leaving the internal connection between 
vocal chords and inner ear untouched. Consequently, we can *think* words 
and *hear* them without any of the process being audible.

As for the issue of the **functional** internalization (or 
interiorization, involution, intravolution) of personal speech, LSV claims 
that this occurs between ages 7-8, and is part of a developmental 
transition from private speech to inner speech. This transition depends 
entirely on the completion of the psychological process of abbreviation of 
private speech. While the timing of this functional internalization has 
not been confirmed and is by no means certain, from the scant evidence we 
have, it seems to occur a very long time after inner speech has come into 
existence--which makes me wonder just what children are saying to 
themselves in inner speech during this period! 

For more precise information on the physical basis of inner speech, you 
might want to check out the following book: Intrapersonal Communication: 
Different Voices, Different Minds, by Donna Vocate (1994, Lawrence 
Erlbaum).

I hope this response is helpful. 

Best wishes,
Peter

Peter Feigenbaum, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Institutional Research
Fordham University
Thebaud Hall-202
Bronx, NY 10458

Phone: (718) 817-2243
Fax: (718) 817-3203
e-mail: pfeigenbaum@fordham.edu



Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu> 
Sent by: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu
10/14/2010 04:42 PM
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"eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>


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Re: [xmca] LSV on the preschool stage






On the issue of speech becoming 'inner physiologically,' here are the 
results of an hour's Googling.

The principal brain region involved in speech production is Broca’s area. 
The principal brain region involved in word recognition is Wernicke’s 
area. Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are connected by a bundle of nerve 
fibres: the arcuate fasciculus. Lesion studies confirm that it is involved 
with language. It is much larger in adult humans than in chimps or 
monkeys. MRI studies of children from 4 to 17 have found increase the 
white matter of this link with age, and only in the left hemisphere.

Rilling, J. K., Glasser, M. F., Preuss, T. M., Ma, X., Zhao, T., Hu, X., 
et al. (2008). The evolution of the arcuate fasciculus revealed with 
comparative DTI. Nature Neuroscience, 11(4), 426-8.
 
Paus, T., Zijdenbos, A., Worsley, K., Collins, D. L., Blumenthal, J., 
Giedd, J. N., et al. (1999). Structural maturation of neural pathways in 
children and adolescents: in vivo study. Science, 283(5409), 
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