A comparison of song‐lyric and prose self‐instruction procedures for increasing novel skills in children
Let kids pick prose or song-lyric self-talk—both teach skills, but song-lyrics can be faster for some motor tasks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team taught kids brand-new tasks like folding paper planes or tying knots.
Each child tried two ways to talk themselves through the steps: plain spoken sentences or the same words set to a simple tune.
An alternating-treatments design flipped the formats every session so each kid served as their own control.
What they found
Both self-talk styles worked, but speed differed by task.
Song lyrics won on four of eight jobs, prose won on three, and one ended in a tie.
When asked, half the kids liked singing, half liked talking—no clear crowd favorite.
How this fits with other research
Roberts et al. (1987) already showed that teaching kids any self-instruction script lifts schoolwork accuracy. Bloom simply asks, "Does the wrapper matter?" and says yes—sometimes.
van Timmeren et al. (2016) stretched self-instruction into teens with autism using iPhone videos. Bloom keeps the self-management theme but stays with verbal scripts and neurotypical children.
Taber-Doughty (2005) also used an alternating-treatments plan and found that letting students pick their prompting style sped learning. Bloom echoes this: when kids chose song or prose, the chosen form usually finished the job faster.
Why it matters
You don’t need fancy tools—just tweak the words. Teach the script once, then let the learner decide: talk it or sing it. If the task is hands-on, try the song first; if it’s flat, go with prose. Either way, you keep the gains and maybe shave a few minutes off each lesson.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We compared the effects of the effects of self-instructions in the form of prose or song lyrics in the acquisition of gross motor tasks in 4 third-grade children. We taught participants 4 pairs of gross motor tasks, with one task in each pair taught with prose self-instructions and the other taught with song lyric self-instructions. Both self-instruction procedures were effective for teaching tasks; however, acquisition was quicker with song lyric self-instruction for 4 task pairs, acquisition was quicker with prose self-instruction for 3 task pairs; and similar for 1 task pair. Participants were then able to select their preferred method of self-instruction for a novel, applied skill. Two participants selected song-lyric self-instructions and 2 participants selected prose self-instructions.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2020 · doi:10.1002/jaba.548