6th Graders Doing Hands-on Math Problem, Wellsville, New York, USA. (Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Encouraging kids to talk to themselves could improve their math scores.
That’s according to a new study published in the journal child Development.
The results show that encouraging children to silently repeat positive words to themselves, emphasizing their effort over ability could make them successful.
Experts add that using mantras like “I’ll do my very best” during a math exam can actually improve test score for some kids.
More than two hundred children, aging from 9 to 13 years old, participated in the study.
Researchers asked children about how competent they felt about their math skills before they took a standardized math test.
After completing the first half of the test, the children were randomly assigned to talk to themselves, focusing on effort and ability, or no self-talk at all.
Following the completion of the second half of the test, experts found that the children who participated in self-talk focusing on their effort improved their performance on the test, compared to those who did not.