Originally developed to help students overcome learning obstacles created by emotional trauma or neurobiological learning disabilities, Reuven Feuerstein's work is now used in major cities around the world to support improved thinking and learning by all students. This book is the most up-to-date summary of his thinking and includes accessible descriptions of his tools and methods for cognitive modifiability and mediated learning. With dramatic case studies throughout the text, Feuerstein and his co-authors define intelligence as a dynamic force that drives the human organism to change the structure of thinking in order to answer the needs it encounters. They describe in detail the specific skills of the three stages of thinking: input or observation and data-gathering stage; development or processing stage; and output stage, including analysis, synthesis, and communication. They show how student thinking can stall in multiple ways at any of these stages and how intentional mediation can help students restructure their thinking and improve their ability to learn. Similarly to cognitive mediated learning, the authors address mediation of social and emotional skills that impact learning.

While self-talk like “Now we are buckling you in the car seat so we can go to the store” is common parental practice, this book shows how teachers, parents, and therapists can take this to higher levels to advance language cognitive development and learning potential. Based on neuroscience and their own innovative work, the authors provide the rationale and a step-by-step process for using intentional self-talk and think-aloud methods to improve both language and cognitive development in normal and language-delayed children, as well as in older individuals with disabilities. Stories are sprinkled throughout the text to demonstrate mediated self-talk in action and the remarkable results achieved with real children. With clear guidelines for delivery, content, and timing, the crucial core of the process is to narrate thinking, action, and emotion in the presence of children without requiring their response.