Inducing adaptive coping self-statements in children with learning disabilities through self-instruction training

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Special Education

Background:

• Children with learning disabilities (LD) often experience significant math anxiety.
• Positive self-talk is crucial for academic performance and emotional well-being.
• Existing interventions may not adequately address the affective needs of students with LD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of a cognitive behavior modification (CBM) based coping strategy in reducing math anxiety among children with LD.
• To examine the impact of the CBM strategy on self-talk and math performance in children with and without LD.
• To explore the correlation between changes in self-talk and math achievement in children with LD.

Main Methods:

• A sample of 20 children (Grades 4-7), including those with LD and normally achieving peers, participated.
• Participants received training in a CBM-based coping strategy.
• Dependent measures included self-talk analysis and performance on fraction-based math problems (pre- and post-intervention).

Main Results:

• Pre-intervention, normally achieving children exhibited more positive self-talk than children with LD.
• Post-intervention, children with LD demonstrated comparable levels of positive self-talk to their normally achieving peers.
• A moderate positive correlation was observed between increased positive self-talk and improved math performance in children with LD.

Conclusions:

• The CBM-based coping strategy was effective in helping children with LD manage math anxiety.
• The findings suggest that CBM strategies can be successfully applied to the affective domain in educational settings.
• This study highlights the potential of targeted interventions to improve both emotional regulation and academic outcomes for students with learning disabilities.