Private speech (also known as private dialogue, selftalk, collective monologue, noncommunicative speech, or egocentric speech) is speech that is directed to the self and not to others. Private speech serves as a tool for thinking that facilitates problem solving and is also a tool that mediates people's self-regulatory capacity. John Flavell coined the term private speech in 1964 as a means of distinguishing Lev Vygotsky's understanding of this phenomenon from the interpretation given to us earlier by Jean Piaget. The earliest documentation of egocentric speech surfaced in the 1920s by Piaget. He observed young children playing together while emitting verbal monologues without any apparent concern for the listener. The children appeared to be unable to take the perspective of the listener into account and instead ...