self-repetition

[Jan Anward]

>Does anyone have some information on literature (or personal experiences) on
>metalinguistic self-repetition?  My younger daughter went through a phase at
>about age 10 when everything she said, she repeated in an undertone to herself
>immediately after.  I've since heard of other children having been observed to
>do this.
>
>John Haiman

I am reminded of Weir's classical 'Language in the crib', which focuses on
self-repetition as a means of practising at a very early age.
Around 10 or around 5-6, as Lamb reports, could be interpreted as a
strategy for moving from dialogue to monologue. I.e. before you master
monologue, you may go through a phase where you model monologues on
dialogues. Something along these lines appears to go on in children's
spoken and written narratives, which may go through an early phase of
dramatized action, letting protagonists speak instead of describing what
they are doing.
For Swedish, there are some examples of such written narratives in Birgitta
Garme's 'Text och tanke' (in Swedish, unfortunately).

Jan Anward