Self-Talk Monitoring and Goal-Oriented Thinking: Effects on Middle Schoolers’ Behavior During Academics

Abstract

A self-talk monitoring and goal-oriented thinking (STM+GOT) intervention package was used to teach four U.S. middle school students with high-incidence disabilities to develop and track progress toward self-determined behavioral goals. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to determine the effects of STM+GOT on both behavior and academics during independent academic work. The intervention consisted of four phases including baseline, student training of STM+GOT, intervention in a self-contained classroom, and generalization in an inclusive classroom. Data on students’ target behavior were collected using momentary time sampling with 1-min intervals over a period of 15 consecutive minutes. Permanent product recording was used to collect data on the work tasks of each student. Results indicated that all four students decreased their occurrences of their target behavior across both intervention and generalization; three of the four students increased work completion rates but with less consistency than the change in target behaviors. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.