I can do this math, yo!

Abstract

Various barriers to developing fluent academic performance can emerge through one’s own verbal behavior. Engaging in a high frequency of negative statements is an example of such barriers. A third-grade female student was referred to a Precision Teaching (PT) center to receive services in math remediation. It was quickly identified that she engaged in negative statements about math and about herself as a student. The combination of PT techniques with Calkin’s 1-min positive thoughts intervention (Calkin, 2003) resulted in an immediate decrease in negative statements while increasing the student’s positive statements and academic performance. This trend in performance continued to grow across 5 weeks. Further, overall grade-level performance improvement was observed on curriculum based measurement assessments given prior to and following the center’s 20-hr math intervention.