Sound-based Number Facts Training in a Private Speech Internalization Perspective: Evidence for Effectiveness of an Intervention in Grade 3

Abstract

The overall purpose of the present study was to examine whether an intervention program (50 weeks), modeled as training in accordance with the developmental course of private speech (from audible private speech to silent inner speech), itself would add positively to the development of mathematical competence. The sample comprised two comparable groups of 82 third-grade children. One group followed the intervention program, the other group followed a traditional teaching program. The main concern was whether private speech and task-specific strategy use differences would arise as a function of the different teaching programs carried out in the two groups. Two separate laboratory investigations were performed for each child to explore their levels of strategy use and private speech internalization. The results indicated successful influence of the intervention program reflected in more internalized private speech and more internalized task-specific strategy use. Given the results of the study, classroom teachers should be encouraged to utilize private speech internalization as a valuable and potentially powerful tool for efficiently retrieving number fact information.