“Think Aloud”: A program for developing self-control in young aggressive boys

Abstract

"Think Aloud" was designed as a training program to improve self-control in 6- to 8-year-old boys. It involved modeling and verbalization of cognitive activity to foster use of verbal mediation skills in dealing with both cognitive and interpersonal problems. It was hypothesized that this training would lead to improvement in test performance and teacher ratings of classroom behavior in hyperaggressive boys. Twelve aggressive second grade boys participated in daily, 30-minute, individual sessions for 6 weeks. Normal and aggressive control subjects received no intervention. Teachers rated both trained and untrained aggressive boys as improving in aggressive behaviors but they rated the experimental group as showing improvement on a significantly larger number of prosocial behaviors. The pattern of performance on cognitive tests also changed significantly in the experimental group. On pretest, their pattern differed from normals and resembled the aggressive control group, while on posttest their pattern resembled normals and differed from agressive controls. Suggestions were made concerning additional refinements needed in the program, but overall results indicated potential value in the present approach for providing assistance to aggressive boys in the early grades.

Cognitive-behavioural Anger Management Training for Adults with Mild Intellectual Disability

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Self-instruction training: A potential tool for school psychologists

“…The results, though mixed, suggest that self-instruction training was effective in increasing prosocial behavior (Camp, et al, 1977) and in decreasing distractibility, aggressiveness, and restlessness (Kendall, 1982;Kendall & Zupan, 1981).…”

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“…Brown et al (1981) reported on techniques for enhancing learning to learn among EMR and remedial students. The "turtle technique" (Robin, Schneider, & Dolnick, 1977;Schneider, 1974) and a "think aloud" program (Camp, Blom, Hebert, & Van Doorninck, 1977) have been developed to teach delayed responding and social problem solving to aggressive children. Self-instructional training has been applied to a host of behavioral and academic problems among both normal and exceptional students (Meichenbaum, 1977;Meichenbaum & Asarnow, 1979).…”