A Think-Aloud and Talk-Aloud Approach to Building Language

While self-talk like “Now we are buckling you in the car seat so we can go to the store” is common parental practice, this book shows how teachers, parents, and therapists can take this to higher levels to advance learning potential. Based on neuroscience and their own innovative work, the authors provide the rationale and a step-by-step process for using intentional self-talk and think-aloud methods to improve both language and cognitive development in normal and language-delayed children, as well as in older individuals with disabilities. Stories are sprinkled throughout the text to demonstrate mediated self-talk in action and the remarkable results achieved with real children. With clear guidelines for delivery, content, and timing, the crucial core of the process is to narrate thinking, action, and emotion in the presence of children without requiring their response.

Book Features:

• Addresses the growing numbers of children entering school with “language poverty.”
• Describes the concept of mediated soliloquy (MSL), or self-talk, with individuals or classrooms—who should use it and when, where and how it can be applied, and expected outcomes.
• Illustrates the use of MSL for specific language disorders and to improve both language and interpersonal function with children exhibiting delays, disabilities, spectrum behavior, and social/emotional difficulties.

Reuven Feuerstein was the founder and director of the Feuerstein Institute (formerly ICELP) and professor of psychology in Bar-Ilan University’s School of Education (Ramat-Gan, Israel), and a Nobel Prize nominee. Louis H. Falik is emeritus professor of counseling at San Francisco State University and a senior scholar at the Feuerstein Institute. Refael Feuerstein is chairman of the Feuerstein Institute. Their books include Beyond Smarter: Mediated Learning and the Brain's Capacity for Change and A Think-Aloud and Talk-Aloud Approach to Building Language: Overcoming Disability, Delay, and Deficiency. Louis H. Falik is emeritus professor of counseling at San Francisco State University and a senior scholar at The Feuerstein Institute. Refael S. Feuerstein is deputy chairman of The Feuerstein Institute. Krisztina Bohács lectures at Juhasz Gyula Teachers Training College and the University of Szeged, and is the head of the Foundation for Mediated Learning in Budapest, Hungary. The first three authors wrote Beyond Smarter: Mediated Learning and the Brain’s Capacity for Change.

“From his vantage point as a pioneer in cognitive theory and practice, Reuven Feuerstein provides this text for guiding the language development of children and youth who most need assistance.”
—Donna Wilson, educational and school psychologist

"The authors present an application of mediated learning experience (MLE) to the development of language in young children, particularly those who experience delays or deficiencies in receptive and expressive skills. They succeed in explaining and providing examples of the approach which is called Soliloquy, or mediated self-talk (MSL)."
—Patricia Edwards, Michigan State University, 2010-2011 president of the International Reading Association

“A Think-Aloud and Talk-Aloud Approach to Building Language is the oracle on accelerating and optimizing language development for those students who have lacked the experiences needed to build the critical language repertoire required for deep reading, academic achievement, and recognition of the brilliance that they harbor.”
—Yvette Jackson, CEO, National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, and author of The Pedagogy of Confidence