Social Origins of Private Speech in Pretend Play

Western research on the social origins of private speech has typically focused on speech accompanying problem solving, such as puzzle assembly or academic tasks, rather than pretend play. I attribute the lack of research on the social origins of private speech during pretend play to the fact that most pretend play research has been based on Piaget’s theory. Piaget (1945/1962) was adamant that the ludic symbol originates from the child’s own sensorimotor schemata and is not a social convention. It follows that if one assumes that pretend play originates as a solitary activity, one would not look for the social origins of private speech during early pretend play.