这句话出自2017年6月大学英语六级考试选词填空题，文章讲述儿童在完成一项任务时嘴里念叨操作步骤会有助于完成任务。本句的前一句提到，有研究认为执行任务时自言自语对儿童有好处，但对成人则未必。本句则说明自言自语对成人执行任务也有益处。纵观全文，可以看出本句中的when kids walk themselves 应为when kids talk themselves。原文误将talk写成了walk。悲哀之处是，网上很多的所谓答案解析和原文都对这个显而易见的错误的walk视而不见，真不知这些解题者怎么读懂这个句子的。

The two professor hope to refute that idea ,claiming that just as when kids talk themselves through a  process ,adult can benefit from using language not just to communicate ,but also to help thinking.

just as when..., as后省略了kids benefit from using language,

just as引导比较分句，这种分句省略和主句形同或相似的结构是常规。补全的分句为：

The two professor hope to refute that idea ,claiming that just as kids benefit from yusing language when they walk themselves through a  process, adults can benefit from using language not just to communicate ,but also to help thinking.

所以，just as when中的when是不可缺少的。

网友写的句子有三处错误，今后应注意检查。此外，在just as 之后多了一个when，国内水平考试在从国外网站选取素材上多写了一个when，这样就“以讹传讹”。显然，这个when 是多余的。这里，as 引导方式状语从句，just 用来强调：“正如；正像”。

The two professors hope to refute that idea,claiming that just as kids walk themselves through a  process, adults can benefit from using language not just to communicate,but also to help thinking.

【翻译】这两位教授希望反驳这一观点，他们声称，就像孩子们走完一段路程那样，使用语言不仅是为了交流，而且也是为了帮助思考，成年人可以从中受益。

The two professor hope to refute that idea ,claiming that just as when kids walk themselves through a  process ,adult can benefit from using language not just to communicate ,but also to help thinking

参考译文：他两位教授希望反驳/驳斥/否认这种想法，声称就像孩子们经历他们人生过程一样，成人受益于使用语言不仅是用来交流，而是用来帮助思考。