Self‐talk has been recognised as a tool used by children to regulate their thinking and behaviour. To support children’s use of self‐regulatory verbal strategies, educators need to understand the context, content and dynamics of children’s self‐talk. While a significant amount of empirical research had been carried out on self‐talk, most was carried out from the perspective of developmental psychology and few sought children’s perspectives. This study explored seven‐ to eight‐year‐olds’ use of self‐talk through children’s reflective journals and interviews. The findings showed that, as self‐talk became largely internalised, the children continued to engage in various forms of self‐talk when handling cognitive and socio‐emotional challenges. Their self‐talk afforded insights into their attitudes and dispositions, their internal standards and mastery goal‐orientation and their metacognitive awareness of the efficacy of their self‐talk. The study suggests that self‐talk could play an important role in childr...