Virtual Teacher

We can teach children to verbalize their thinking and to use these verbalizations to guide their own academic and social behavior. Using the self-instruction procedure , students learn to self-verbalize statements, questions, directions or instructions, and even their own cognitions (their thoughts and the way they interpret events) to influence and change their performance. In the cognitive literature, self-instruction is also called behavioral self-management training, self-instruction training, or behavioral self-control . With minimal variations, all these procedures train children in how to talk to themselves, first aloud and then silently, in order to guide their own behavior. Children learn to use self-statements (words or phrases) to interrupt themselves before they perform an inappropriate act (e.g. leaving task, fighting, or blurting out answers).Through this internal private speech, children bring their behavior back to their control. Self-instruction deals mainly with ...

This is an excerpt from my book, “Thinking, Feeling, and Behaving: A Cognitive-Emotive Model to Get Children to Control their Behavior.” To preview this book free, just click on the link at the bottom of this post. Using cognitive behavior modification, teachers and parents can train children to generate an internal dialogue that structures their thinking and control their behavior. Through “thought catching” and becoming “thought detectives,” children learn to monitor the things they say to themselves, and to substitute their irrational beliefs (angry and self-defeating thoughts and ideas) with rational thinking. The cognitive-emotive approach helps children see the direct link between their thinking and their emotional reactions and behavior. The goal of this training is to teach children how to see themselves accurately, so that when problems are their fault, they take responsibility for it and try to correct their behavior, but when problems are not their fault, th...