The Power of Talking to Yourself

When I was in 8th grade, my physical science teacher was a legend in his own school. Mr. Lippe had a reputation for being a really tough teacher. He regularly broke meter sticks by whacking them on the lab table at the front of the room. He made you do math in science class. He expected you to write your test answers in complete sentences and took off points for misspelled words.

All of these legendary qualities were true. But the thing I remember most about Mr. Lippe was that he taught us to talk to ourselves when solving problems.

I was reminded of Mr. Lippe and his teaching methods recently when I read an article in Teaching Exceptional Children titled "Using Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies to Increase Response to Intervention in Inclusive Middle Math Settings". The teacher had partnered children together in teams, and then had each team member take turns walking the other through a math problem. Students used the same phrases over and over to prompt one another to move on to the next step. Eventually, students found themselves using these prompting phrases to help them solve math problems on their tests, and their test scores increased.

While the authors of the article were convinced that the peer interaction was the key to the success of their method, I am not so sure. After all, I spent 8th grade in Mr. Lippe's class learning to talk to myself!

Teaching students to talk to themselves as they solve a math or science problem involves pre-planning exactly what you want the students to say as they harness the power of self-talk to help them work through multi-step problems on their own.

The first step is breaking down the problem into steps. For each step, you will want a simple phrase to explain what to do next.

Once you have broken the problem down into steps, finding an easily understandable way to remember the steps can make the difference between learning it forever and just remembering it for the test. For example, Mr Lippe explained the complexities of atomic bonding by constantly reminding us that all atoms wanted to be "happy atoms" and have their outer energy levels full. In order to do this, they could either share electrons (covalent bonding) or steal them (ionic bonding). No one who spent a year in Mr. Lippe's science class could forget hearing him talk, and talk, and talk about his "happy atoms".

This brings us to the third part of preparing to teach the power of talking to yourself: Repetition. By repeating the same words over and over, we ingrain them into long-term memory. For example, when teaching my youngest sons (who have physical disabilities and cannot speak) how to do simple subtraction, every single time we see the minus symbol, I tell them, "When you see the minus, it means you take something away." Teachers can even incorporate a body movement or hand sign along with the words. In Mr. Lippe's class, he required us to write the formula, substitute and solve the problem on each assignment in order to get credit for that problem. So he chanted, "formula, substitution, solve" before he started any sample problem.

Once you have come up with the words to be repeated for each step in the process, you are ready to teach your children the power of talking to yourself!

There are 2 different ways to do this: Mr. Lippe's method and a much more student-involved method based on the article I recently read. The one you choose will depend on your teaching style and your specific setting, or you may blend and adapt the two of them to suite your individual needs.

Following Mr. Lippe's straight lecture method, the teacher does numerous sample problems back to back, using the pre-planned words for each step in the process. The next day, the teacher will review how to do the problems, leaving a pause for the class to say the pre-planned messages before each new step of the problem. Each time the teacher solves any problems in front of the class, he says the pre-planned words.

The more student-involved method of teaching the power of self-talk involves giving students the pre-planned words for each step of the process, along with several sample problems. Students get into groups and one student works on solving the problem, while the partner says the pre-planned words before each new step as a prompt. Students take turns saying the prompts and solving the problems.

Results from either one of these methods will be that the students have internalized the steps needed to solve math or science problems, in the form of pre-planned words that they can use to help themselves focus on the problem and/or move on to the next step. As the students become comfortable with talking to themselves and the step by step process, their confidence builds, and they will be able to more easily able to use what they already know about solving problems to tackle new ones.

Reference: Kroeger, Stephen D. and Kouche, Beth, Using Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies to Increase Response to Intervention in Inclusive Middle Math Settings, Teaching Exceptional Children, vol. 38 No. 5, May/June 2006.

ABOUT THIS COLUMN
SERCH is excited to bring you a new monthly column that focuses on children with disabilities and the math/science curriculum. Children are all different; children with disabilities may have learning differences that require a re-thinking of the usual methods of teaching science and math. But children with disabilities can grow up to get higher education and hold jobs in science in science and math fields. This column is dedicated to the proposition that success in science and math is possible, and is dedicated to making that success possible by helping parents and school staff learn about the many ways to achieve learning for students with disabilities.

This column is written by Robin Hurd, who is a mother of 4 boys, ages 13, 11 and 8 year old twins. The combination of disabilities at her house includes non-verbal physical impairments, sensory issues, Autistic spectrum disorder, Tourettes syndrome, auditory processing disorder, anxiety disorder as well as talented and gifted. In spite of this list, Robin, David and the boys enjoy life and learning to the fullest! Robin serves as parent support liaison for the AAC Institute, a non-profit organization supporting people who communicate using alternatives to speech. She writes a monthly column for parents at the AAC Institute, moderates a parents' on-line group, and is available for support to individual parents. If you would like to contact Robin about this column, you may e-mail her at parents@aacinstitute.org.