Does your child talk to themselves?

[bringbackfonzi]

My dd who's 7 talks to herself quite a lot. It's started to worry me. Does anyone else have a child that does this?

[jilted]

Is she role playing of just talking out loud?
My nearly 5 year old does but she usually does it when playing imaginary role plays iyswim? She has great long conversations with her imaginary friends !

[Happy36]

I did and kind of still do... (mostly in my head).

I wouldn't worry if she is happy.

[bringbackfonzi]

No, not role playing, just saying thoughts out loud as she goes along. Is 7 a bit old for this kind of thing?

[SocksRock]

My 4yo does it a lot. I do it as well, but keep it in my head as people definitely think it's odd to verbalise it as a 36 year old...

[Finola1step]

My ds aged 6 does it. When he's playing, he will have little conversations with himself. It's fine. He knows that he's doing it and doesn't need to do it when with friends. It's just playing.

[bringbackfonzi]

The thing is, she doesn't just do it when she's playing, she does it at random times. It's sort of commenting on stuff as she goes along.

[jilted]

Do you think she might be lonely bring back? Does she have friends ?

[jilted]

Both my brother and my husband do it a lot and they are both not very sociable or bother much with friends.

[SmashleyHop]

My 11 yr old is doing it now as I type this. He is playing a video game and has this running commentary going. He does it sometimes just randomly too. He was an only child for 8 years before I had my other two though- so I think he's just used to kind of talking out loud for a bit of back ground noise.

[SwedishEdith]

I think it's fine. I think it's one of those things that some people like me just do. As long as she knows when it might not always be appropriate, or is able to learn that, I wouldn't worry

[Alreadyaugust]

My 27 year old daughter did this, and still does. She is really intelligent, works in the city and learns languages and plays instruments in her spare time. There's always something bubbling away in her head. She's done fine and is a happy person, it just seems that her thoughts don't always stay inside her head sometimes.

[Wozald1989]

I do this!! Was just talking to myself a minute ago haha, I have to stop myself

[Standinginline]

I did it until I was about 7 / 8 when my brother was old enough to talk and play with me. Before that I think I was slightly lonely so had a friend called "Laura " and would have conversations with myself quite happily. I'm pretty normal and would say have some intelligence so has bearing on that.

[Standinginline]

*so has NO bearing on that

[bringbackfonzi]

Thanks everyone, that's reassuring! Funnily enough my dd had a Laura for a while too...

[0dd]

My almost 7 year old DS does this a lot.

Even worse, he sings his conversations/narration.

It's like living in a musical!

He even whispers away to himself to soothe himself to sleep.

I just assume it's a sign of genius. . Which he takes after me, naturally.

[Athrawes]

My DS (4) does this all the time, running commentary on what he is playing, or tells himself to "calm down" if he is getting upset.

[PlumpPartridge]

My DS (3) wanders off talking to himself sadly when he's been told off. I do it when practicing conversations or immediately after a conversation (I tend to rehash and go over it in my head). I am 32

[ElphabaTheGreen]

One of my lecturers at uni actually did research on children talking to themselves. They put gadgets on children's necks to capture every utterance during play and track frequency of self-talk as a child matures. They discovered that children talk to themselves during play well past the age of seven, but it just becomes less audible. They detected sub-audible vocal cord activity in the majority of 10 year olds in their sample, so self-talk at 7 is perfectly normal. The volume will just reduce over time.

[SecretWitch]

My almost seven year old dd has long intense conversations with herself and her imaginary playmates. She only does this when she alone.

I talk to myself constantly. I even talk in my sleep or so my dh says.