The present study examined the spontaneous private speech of 16 children of 5 to 7 years of age whose documented birth weight was below 1500 grams and who showed evidence, at the time of testing, of behavioral and learning difficulties. Children in the sample, though of normal intelligence, showed depressed early reading skills, difficulties in visual-motor integration and some evidence of attention-deficit symptomatology. Three hypotheses were tested regarding possible deficits in the production, quality and internalization of self-regulatory language in this high-risk sample. The findings suggest that although the overt self-regulatory private speech of high-risk children is apparently normal, their marked lack of whispering indicates difficulties in the subvocalization or internalization of such speech. A strong relation was found between lack of whispering and an index of reading disability, suggesting that the capacity to internalize speech might be a necessary precursor for the capacity to read. Thirty-eight references are included. Four statistical tables and four graphs are presented to support the study. (Author/RH)