Verbal self-instructional training: An examination of its efficacy, maintenance, and generalisation

Abstract

The study examined the differential efficacy, maintenance and generalisation effects of verbal self-instructional (VSI) training on reading disabled children, Type of sub-clliture (Tribal Vs. Non-tribal) is crossed with type of cognitive stage (concrete Vs. formal operation) to produce four training grollps with 15 slIbjects per cell. The subjects were trained for 10 weeks and retested for post-test and follow-lip data. While VSI training was beneficial to non-tribals and children offormal operational stage, it failed in case of tribals and children of concrete operational stage. VSI effects were maintained over fOllr months time and evidenced clear generalisation effects.Verbal Self-Instructional (VSI) therapy is one of the most promising cognitive--behavioural treatment approaches in the remediation of childhood cognitive and behaviour disorders. This therapeutic approach stems from the theoretical rationale of verbally mediated self-control of non-verbal behaviour advocated by the Soviet Psychologists namely Luria (1961) and Vygotsky (1962). They proposed a stage theory of development in which a child's overt and covert self verbalizations ("Second signal system") gradually gain control over non--verbal behaviour. In the final stage of speech development, the semantic content of the child's speech-for-self becomes dominant, directive and internalized. For Luria (1961) self--control is a matter of the internalization of speech. In describing the developmental progression (of speech in the direction of self-control, it is stated that, "the regulatory function (of speech) is steadily transformed from the impulse side of speech to the analytic system of elective significative connections which are produced by speech. Moreover, it simultaneously shifts from the external to the internal speech of the child" (p. 92). During this developmental course of speech the content of self-verbalization is transformed from self-stimulatory language with no task solving or planning function to self-guiding language with problem--solving goal oriented functions. The growing internalizations of speech can alter perception, can facilitate or allow more intelligent interaction with the World and can initiate and inhibit action. Although the age-related developmental stages laid down by Luria had been challenged by many western psychologists (e.g., Meichenbaum, 1977), the underlying theory and developmental model provided a practical and very useful sequence for conceptualizing and designing cognitive self-guidance and self-instructional treatment programmes. Meichenbaurn (1977); Kendall (1985) and Kendall, Panichelli, and Susan (1995) were the