Vocate: more on inner speech

External speech includes the spoken language first of others in the child's social environment and thus is the stage that includes the initial sociocultural origins of spoken language. The child's external speech is initially imitative and then evolves into egocentric speech, which, according to Luria, serves a special function in aiding the child in organizing his behavior, and is characterized by its "coding for self" nature. Such speech is gradually internalized, and becomes internal or inner speech. However, in the process of internalization, it is modified somewhat so that its most distinctive feature becomes its predicative nature and it becomes characterized by its ellipsis, synthesis of meaning, and silence. A. R. Luria presumes a familiarity by his reader with these basic developmental stages,