IJSP Number 6, 2024

27 While Piaget still assumed that "egocentric speech arises from insufficient socialization of originally individual speech" [ 5, p. 423, transl. AB ] , which regresses over time, Vygotsky developed this approach further by describing children's monologues as a preliminary stage in the development of adult inner speech. The Soviet neuropsychologist Alexander Luria, who adopted Vygotsky's view and developed it further, describes the associated developmental psychological concept as follows: "Indeed, the child, physically linked to his mother when in the womb and still biologically dependent on her during infancy, remains socially bound up with her for a long time. He is linked to her at first directly and emotionally, and later through speech; by this means he not only enlarges his experience but acquires new modes of behavior and then new ways of organizing his mental activities . By naming various surrounding objects and giving the child orders and instructions, his mother shapes his behavior. Having carefully observed the objects named by his mother, after he acquires the faculty of speech, the child begins to name them actively and thus to organize his acts of perception and his deliberate attention. When he does as his mother tells him he retains the traces of verbal instructions in his memory for a long time. Thus, he learns how to formulate his own wishes and intentions independently, first in externalized and then in inner speech. He thus creates the highest forms of purposive memory and deliberate activity. What he could previously do only with adult help, he is now able to do unassisted. This fact becomes the basic law in a child's development." [ 6, p. 16f ] 2.1. COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY BUILDING ON THIS A few decades later, these developmental psychological perspectives also attracted the attention of behavioral psychology, which continues to have an impact in various concepts to this day. In the 1970s, the American behavioral psychologist Donald H. Meichenbaum - who is considered one of the pioneers of cognitive behavioral therapy - referred directly to the observations and interpretations of Vygotsky and Luria, however in an interpretation that neglects the child's independent, active role in these processes [ 7 ] . Meichenbaum derived the sequence of steps for his own behavior-modifying programs for adolescents and adults directly from Vygotsky and Luria's view of the developmental process in infancy. His technique consists of learning and practicing a guided form of "inner speech" - Petzold & Sieper speak of an "abbreviated Vygotsky technique" [ 8, p.19 ] . The technique consists of a guided transition from external to internal steering of behavior, in each case using linguistic means. The practical implementation looks something like this: Initially the therapist acts as a model by