Cognitive Development 59 (2021) 101073 0885-2014/© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Sociodramatic play enhances preschoolers’ private speech and motivation across activities Jeremy E. Sawyer a, *, Patricia J. Brooks b a Department of Behavioral Sciences, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, USA b Department of Psychology, College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, Staten Island, USA A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Vygotsky Preschoolers Sociodramatic play Private speech Motivation Persistence ABSTRACT Vygotskian theory suggests that sociodramatic play, private speech, and motivation are deeply intertwined in development. This study used fshing and puzzle tasks to explore how preschoolers (N = 47) used private speech to verbally mediate their engagement and motivation in activities with differing demands. We experimentally manipulated pedagogical contexts by framing ac- tivities as sociodramatic play or task completion to examine the impact on private speech and motivation. Children’s private speech and motivation were both greater in the sociodramatic play condition. Children demonstrated stable individual differences across activities in frequencies of private speech and level of speech internalization, while also appearing to tailor private speech functions to the demands of each activity. Children’s performance and persistence were uncor- related across activities and were related to different private speech categories within each ac- tivity. The results extend research on activity-specifcity in language use to private speech, while underscoring how sociocultural contexts infuence motivational development. 1. Introduction As children develop, they may become deeply engaged or gradually withdrawn from learning and other activities. Differing motivational patterns emerge early and can be observed in preschool (Baumrind, 1967; Carlton & Winsler, 1998) and the grades immediately following (Poskiparta et al., 2003). The preschool years also coincide with rapid growth in children’s language capacities (Bond & Wasik, 2009) and their frst exposures to varying pedagogical contexts (Stipek et al., 1992; Stipek et al., 1995). This observed variation in children’s motivational trajectories led us to ask what types of pedagogical contexts might facilitate or impede motiva- tional development, and how children’s language use might affect their motivation during various activities. In particular, Vygotskian theory suggests that young children’s development of motivation and volition is a process with close links to sociodramatic play and private speech (Vygotsky, 1933/1967, 1934/1987). To illuminate these developmental processes, the present study examined pre- schoolers’ private speech and motivation during two distinct activities (fshing and puzzles) in an experimentally manipulated soci- odramatic play condition vs. a task-oriented condition. This permitted us to investigate the causal impact of playful, sociodramatic contexts on children’s private speech and motivation, and potential activity-specifc differences in private speech and its relations with motivation. * Corresponding author at: Behavioral Sciences, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY, 2001 Oriental Blvd., Brooklyn, NY, 11235-2398, USA. E-mail address: Jeremy.Sawyer@kbcc.cuny.edu (J.E. Sawyer). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Cognitive Development journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cogdev https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101073 Received 4 August 2020; Received in revised form 25 May 2021; Accepted 28 May 2021