Effects of Self-Instructional Training and Strategy Training on a Mathematics Task with Severely Behaviorally Disordered Students

Seven distractible students were given instruction regarding a basic competency in mathematics, the skill to multiply decimal fractions. The effects of two treatment approaches were compared. Strategy training consisted of modeling and prompting attention behaviors and the employment of a specific strategy for solving the problems. Although accuracy rate improved, there were no reliable changes in attention using this procedure. Self-instructional training consisted of modeling, prompting, and the use of self-verbalizations to guide behavior. Attention and accuracy rate improved significantly following self-instructional training. The results provided evidence that self-instructions can enhance performance of distractible students directly in the context of an academic task.