Creativity and private speech: Developmental trends

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Abstract
The first purpose of this article was to identify developmental patterns for creativity measures and levels of private speech in young children. The second purpose was to examine the semantic content of private speech to determine patterns and characteristics of creative‐thought development. Creativity measures and private‐speech utterances were taken from 42 kindergarten and preschool children. Each private‐speech utterance was coded into one of five levels. Descriptive statistical analysis was applied to the data using mean ages and frequency counts for variables under study. Developmental trends for three measures of creativity and two higher levels of private speech declined during the preschool years. However, the pattern reversed around the age of 5 years resulting in an upward movement. These changes may suggest a qualitative transformation in conceptual‐thought formation at a very young age as predicted by Vygotsky.