http://www.abacon.com/berk/ica/research.html wrote:
Why Children Talk to Themselves
Scientific American, pp. 78-83.
Berk, L. E. (1994, November).
<<As any parent, teacher, sitter or casual observer will notice, young children talk to themselves - sometimes as much or even more than they talk to other people. Depending on the situation, this private speech can account for 20 to 60 percent of the remarks a child younger than 10 years makes.
In Russia more than six decades ago, Lev S. Vygotsky, a prominent psychologist, first documented the importance of private speech. In fear, Soviet psychologists turned on one another. Some declared Vygotsky a renegade, and several of his colleagues and students split from his circle. The Communist party scheduled a critical "discussion" in which Vygotsky's ideas would be the major target. But in 1934, before Vygotsky could replicate and extend his preliminary studies or defend his position to the party, he died of tuberculosis. Two years later the Communist party banned his published work.
"The most significant moment in the course of intellectual development," Vygotsky wrote, "...occurs when speech and practical activity, two previously completely independent lines of development, converge." Vygotsky proposed that early social communication precipitates private speech. He maintained that social communication gives rise to all uniquely human, higher cognitive processes.
By communicating with mature members ( 
) of society ,
children learn to master activities and think in ways that have meaning in their culture.
As the child gains mastery over his or her behavior, private speech need not occur in a fully expanded form; the self, after all, is an extremely understanding listener. Consequently, children omit words and phrases that refer to things they already know about a given situation. They state only those aspects that still seem puzzling. Once their cognitive operations become well practiced, children start to "think words" rather than saying them. Gradually, private speech becomes internalized as silent, inner speech - those conscious dialogues we hold with ourselves while thinking and acting. Nevertheless, the need to engage in private speech never disappears. Whenever we encounter unfamiliar or demanding activities in our lives, private speech resurfaces. It is a tool that helps us overcome obstacles and acquire new skills.>>
The Veil Nebula
It has taken 5000 years for it to expand to its present size. What we are seeing is what it looked like 1500 years ago.
