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"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.

Aggressive and normal boys from 77 to 97 months of age were compared on measures of verbal ability, types of self-guiding speech, nonverbal intelligence, reading achievement, impulsivity, ability to inhibit responses, and response modulation following overt and covert commands. Discriminant function analysis resulted in correct classification of 88% of the cases. Variables with high scores contributing to classification as aggressive included vocabulary, immature and irrelevant private speech, fast reaction times, baseline speed of finger tapping, inhibition errors, and speed of responding during covert commands for slowing. Results were interpreted as consistent with the formulation that young aggressive boys fail to use verbal mediational activity in many situations in which it would be appropriate, and when it does occur, covert mediational activity may fail to achieve functional control over behavior. It is hypothesized that both learning and behavior problems in aggressive boys may be symptomatic of an ineffective linguistic control system.Aggressive behavior problems in the early school years are highly related to later delinquency (Conger & Miller, 1966; Click, 1972) and/or psychopathology (Robins, 1966). These problems, especially in boys, also account for the majority of referrals to mental health services in childhood and at older ages are commonly associated with serious learning problems (Miller, Hampe, Barrett, & Noble, 1971). Although similarities in behavior and cognitive functioning of young aggressive and older delinquent boys have been reported (Farrington & West, 1971), very little is known about whether or how cognitive and

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