Encouraging Children To Talk To Themselves Can Help With Their Math Scores

Experts are encouraging teachers and parents to praise the efforts that children make, instead of praise their innate ability, if they want the children to be successful and to build confidence. 

This is because of the new study published in Child Development that states that encouraging kids to repeat statements and phrases to themselves silently about exerting effort could help bring success. For example, kids repeating mantras while taking a math exam can help improve their math test scores.  

Psychology behind the study

An assistant professor of child development at the University of Amsterdam and co-author of the study, Eddie Brummelman, said that their study found that the math performance of children with low self-confidence can benefit a lot when they tell themselves silently that they will make an effort to ace the test. The study was published and can be read in the journal Child Development. 

He also said that they did not find the same result among children with low self-confidence who spoke to themselves about ability. Self-talk about effort is the key.  

The Dutch researchers studied around 212 children whose ages ranged from 9 to 13 years old. According to the researchers, these ages are when negative feelings about the child's abilities at school become more common. They asked the kids about how competent they felt they were at math. A few days later, the kids took the first half of a math exam in their classrooms. 

Immediately after they completed the first half of their test, they were randomly assigned to talk to themselves. They either focused on effort, focus on ability or using no self-talk at all. Afterward, the children completed the second half of their math test. 

The researchers found that those kids who took part in self-talk that focused on effort improved their performance on the test compared to those who did not. The "effort self-talk" was said to benefit kids who had a negative view of their math competence and skill to the extent that it allowed them to keep their performance up to par.  

The benefits were especially pronounced among kids who felt negatively about their competence. In contrast, kids who engaged in self-talk that focused on ability did not improve their math scores, regardless of their beliefs about their competence. 

A professor of psychology at Utrecht University who led the study said that teachers and parents are advised to encourage children to repeat positive self-statements at stressful times, like when they are taking academic tests. 

He also said that until now, they did not have a good idea of whether this helps children's achievement. They discovered that kids with low self-confidence can improve their overall performance through self-talk that is focused on effort, a self-regulation strategy that children can do by themselves every day. 

Talking to yourself

From a young age, children talk to themselves. Preschoolers and toddlers usually do so out loud, but kids do not stop when they get older, according to the researchers. Instead, they tend to do it in silence, as it helps them express their inner world, enliven play and regulate behavior. 

Other studies have shown that engaging in positive self-talk can improve the performance of children in sports like soccer, swimming, and handball. Research has also shown that children who engage in self-talk that emphasizes incompetence, personal harm and failure experience more depression and anxiety.

The researchers stated that when it came to math, the self-talk removed a psychological barrier that otherwise hindered performance, they found no evidence that this approach benefited children who already performed up to their potential.

The study stated that when children with negative competence beliefs work on mathematics problems, they are prone to anticipate and worry about failure. They experience challenges as a signal that they lack ability, triggering disengagement from the task and thus worsening performance. 

Effort self-talk may counter this process, as children shift their attention away from their perceived ability, a quality that is beyond their control, toward a quality that they can control by investing effort.   

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