The purpose of this study was to explore Vygotsky's notion of private speech as a cognitive self-regulatory process and how it related to creativity measures among at-risk children. Thirty-two Head Start and state-funded Pre-K children completed the Torrance creativity test Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM). The children's private speech was collected in an open play context and while children completed structured logical— mathematical activities. Results revealed that both originality and fluency creativity were related to self-direction private speech and grand total private speech. Findings support that cognitive self-regulating private speech may be related to creative thinking and that private speech may offer a method for assessing early creative thinking in children from various cultural and economic backgrounds.
The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among thought processes represented in young children's private speech and creativity assessments of the same children. A secondary purpose was to study the role of affective private speech and its association with creativity measures. The sample was 42 preschool and kindergarten children on whom creativity measures were obtained using the Torrance Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM) assessment instrument.Private speech was collected from the same children. Each private speech utterance was coded into one of five levels: (a) task irrelevant speech (T-1); (b) nonfacilitative, task relevant speech (T-2); (c) task relevant speech (T-3); (d) coping/reinforcing speech (T-4); and (e) solving speech (T-5). Statistical analysis revealed significant positive relationships among creativity measures, solving speech, and coping/reinforcing speech. Furthermore, coping and reinforcing private speech were consistently linked with high creativity measures, demonstrating that the affective domain may play a critical role in creative thinking.Over the past several decades the perception of giftedness has changed from rather restricted and conservative to quite broad, encompassing a var iety of characteristics (Congdon. 1985). Creativity has become an integral component of the expanded definition of giftedness (Davis & RiI1llTI, 1985;Renzulli. 1978; Torrarlce, 1984). However, the nature of creativity is complex and, to date. there is no single, uniformly accepted theory of its developr7tent or attributes (Treffinger, 1986). Consequently, most identification instruments and procedures tend to measure oiilk) certain aspects of creative behavior .Theoretical and empirical interest has focused on the information-processing abilities of creative learners (Borkowski & Peck. 1986: White, 1985. Studies have examined how thinking processes differ in children with superior iniellectual and creative attributes. This issue is of particular concern since it directly relates to curriculum planning for gifted students. In order to substantiate the need for programs for them that differ in content and teaming, it is crucial to demonstrate that these children think differently (Shore. 1986). Thus, identification procedures that center on characteristics and patterns involved in the creative process not
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