The present study explored developmental differences in preschoolers’ use of reported speech and internal state language in personal narratives. Three-, four-, and five-year-olds attending a laboratory preschool shared 204 stories about ‘a time when you were happy/sad’. Stories were audio-recorded, transcribed, and coded for reported speech (direct, indirect, narrativized) and internal state language (cognitive states, total emotion terms, unique emotion terms). Personal narratives told by five-year-olds included more cognitive states and more narrativized speech than those told by three- and four-year-olds, even when accounting for children’s vocabulary skills, and that reported speech (narrativized, direct) were positively correlated with cognitive state talk. These findings highlight distinct shifts in children’s use of cognitive state talk and reported speech in personal narratives told at age five. Associations between reported speech and internal state language are both informed by and support Vygotsky’s (1978) fundamental claim that psychological processes are socially mediated by language.

本研究探讨了学龄前儿童在个人叙述中使用报告言语和内部状态语言的发展差异。就读实验室幼儿园的三岁、四岁和五岁的孩子分享了 204 个关于“快乐/悲伤的时光”的故事。故事被录音、转录并编码为报告的言语（直接、间接、叙述）和内部状态语言（认知状态、总体情感术语、独特情感术语）。即使考虑到儿童的词汇技能，五岁儿童讲述的个人叙述比三岁和四岁儿童讲述的个人叙述包括更多的认知状态和更多的叙述性言语，并且报告的言语（叙述性的，直接的）呈正相关与认知状态谈话。这些发现突显了儿童在五岁时使用认知状态谈话和个人叙述中报告的言语的明显转变。所报告的言语和内部状态语言之间的关联既受到维果茨基（Vygotsky，1978）的基本主张的影响，也支持其基本主张，即心理过程是由语言进行社会调节的。