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 children's socio-emotional competence and creative problem-solving.