Thinking out loud

Penny Tassoni
Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Using language aloud may be essential to young children in activities or at story time and they should not be hushed, says Penny Tassoni Language is an essential tool in our lives. Without language, we would find it hard to socialise, communicate our feelings and maintain relationships. Language also has another important purpose that we probably take for granted -we use it to process and categorise information in a great variety of ways. You may talk to yourself either aloud or using an inner voice to solve problems or organise your next few actions. This function of language is one of the reasons why it is generally accepted that thought and language are linked, although the extent to which thought is dependent on language is still a matter of debate for psychologists.