SELF-TALK

Self-talk is a helpful teaching tool because it involves targeting a problem

that we all experience. Self-talk is the way a student talks to themselves, out
loud or in their head. Negative Self-talk can occur when a student
approaches something new or difficult. When a student approaches
something new they either think Okay, I can do this. or they think, Oh that
looks way too hard, theres no way I can do that. Positive self-talk teaches
students to use their inner voice to encourage and motivate themselves
when they are approaching a new or difficult task.
Implementing self-talk can be as simple as having students to write
encouraging messages to themselves to look back on when they are having
trouble with a task. Self-talk works well with students who have both
education and behavioral disabilities.

References

Hardy, J., Begley, K., &

Blanchfield, A. W.
(2015). It's good but it's
not right: Instructional
self-talk and skilled
performance. Journal Of
Applied Sport
Psychology, 27(2), 132139.
Puchalska-Wasyl, M. M.
(2015). Self-talk:
Conversation with
oneself? On the types of
internal interlocutors.
The Journal Of
Psychology:
Interdisciplinary And
Applied, 149(5), 443460
Lee, S., McDonough, A.,
& Bird, J. (2014).

Implementing Self-talk

Teachers may
implement self-talk
on a classroom wide
or individual basis.
Every student can
benefit from self-talk,
but especially those
with EBD, LD, ID,
ADD, ADHD, and
Autism.
Implementation selftalk includes

paying
attention to
what students
say about
themselves or
their work out
loud to know
which students
need help
model positive
self-talk to your
students and
describe what
you do when
you have a
problem
have students
say something
positive out
loud to
themselves
when they ask
for help or are
faced with a

Students (as well as all

people) often live up to
the expectations that
others have
communicated they
expect that student to
live up to. Self-talk
creates opportunity for
students to live up to
their own positive
expectations by
communicating those
expectations to
themselves.