Much of what I write consists of me talking to myself, but in a manner which allows anyone to listen. Normally, we think of people who talk to themselves as a bit weird, if not mentally ill, and this is especially true if they do so in public. I'd like to be able to say that I don't talk to myself in public, because I really don't -- not in the conventional sense. (Yeah, I was once angrily accused of talking to myself in public because I was talking, to Justin, about this blog, on a cell phone at a mall, but I think my accuser was a busybody who overheard and disliked the conversation.)

The problem is, I consider blogging to be a form of talking to myself in public, as I just admitted. So am I crazier than I think? Should I care?

Maybe not.

Dean Esmay linked an article in Science Daily offering scientific support for the position that talking to yourself is good -- at least, if you're a child:

Parents should not worry when their pre-schoolers talk to themselves; in fact, they should encourage it, says Adam Winsler, an associate professor of psychology at George Mason University. His recent study published in Early Childhood Research Quarterly showed that 5-year-olds do better on motor tasks when they talk to themselves out loud (either spontaneously or when told to do so by an adult) than when they are silent.

"Young children often talk to themselves as they go about their daily activities, and parents and teachers shouldn't think of this as weird or bad," says Winsler. "On the contrary, they should listen to the private speech of kids. It's a fantastic window into the minds of children."

In the study, "'Should I let them talk?': Private speech and task performance among preschool children with and without behavior problems," 78 percent of the children performed either the same or better on the performance task when speaking to themselves than when they were silent.

The news also came as a relief to Dean, who said,

That's a relief. I talk to myself, and answer myself, all the frickin' time.

(In an incredible coincidence, just yesterday I was told to grow up and start acting like a "good little citizen." Ouch.)