Since the age of four, Paul has been surrounded in his room by his collection of rocks, sea shells and Lego projects. His parents marvel at his ability to take a few hundred Lego pieces and construct the most interesting looking things, many of them unrecognizable to his parents, but they express their delight anyway. Paul has requested several large Lego sets over time, and his room always seems to be overwhelmed with creations at various stages of completion.

Susan on the other hand has been asked to be the permanent baby sitter for her two younger siblings, George and Bobbie, and rarely has the inclination to do much more than sit with them and watch whatever programs are available on TV or "treat" her siblings to her favorite reruns. When Susan calls her classmates on her cell phone, they talk about their latest male fantasy, and giggle about the latest failures of other kids at the school.

Have you, the reader, guessed what the internal talk of these two students might be?

It is obvious that the students Paul's and Susan's teachers see in their classrooms each day are quite different in terms of how much they contribute to Blileven Middle School's ability to fulfill its educational mission. Paul is a star in school because his mind is in sync with, and prepared to add to the ideas presented to him. Susan is not so prepared, although now and again she displays what she could do if her self talk were supportive of the school's efforts on her behalf.

Paul's and Susan's home backgrounds most certainly contributed to the way they feel about learning.

Paul's parents began reading to their son by the fireplace in Dad's or Mom's comfortable chair, and providing Lego construction kits for private play very early in life.

The mind talk that Paul subjects his world to is therefore secure, warm, creative, and, in summary, positive.

Susan, on the other hand, has not been offered the same kind of nurturing world as Paul. Her parents did not have the time to give to her for reading. There were no constructive toys purchased. The television was used as a babysitter often, and, when play was encouraged, it was normally on a play swing or catching a ball in the back yard, a task that Susan was not yet ready for, and failed consistently until her father gave up on her.

As a result of hundreds of such experiences, her mind talk lacks the expressive confidence that comes naturally to Paul.

The Lego Group has understood for generations that providing opportunities for positive self talk to both children and adults is crucial for "practice" in coping with the real world.

Lego offers a rising scale of age-based set groupings and classifications. From the relatively simple backhoe for the 7 and 8 year olds to more complex automobile designs for children in the 9 and 10 year age groups, Lego provides the all-important opportunity for the child to lay a foundation of confidence via positive personal talk that will serve them well as academic and general life obligations accrue naturally with their advancing years.

Lego provides a wide range of home and work scenarios, all of which give the child a sense that he has the opportunity to control events in his life. These role plays become a complex set of interconnected patterns that then form a foundation for the child in positive self talk. These patterns of success are indispensable if we expect children to venture into the real world with confidence.

For a nine year old to be given a Lego rocket ship to construct, and surround with successful imagined adventures, is to provide her with a full set of positive, creative self talk that serves to permanently embed in her consciousness a spirit of accomplishment, a sense of security in her personal ability to take on something new, to enjoy shaping of an experience in accordance with personal positive self talk.

Stated differently, once the goal of building the rocket ship is achieved, that is, the pieces are organized, and the the final structure realized, the child sees not only the accomplishment of her plan, but via positive self talk, also sees future possibilities, all of which have a basis for the child in the original success. She has a feeling of confidence that she can venture into an astronaut's world, and be successful. After all, she has already mastered in imagination what is required to take the world of space flight by storm. Her self talk has told her so.

As Lego hobbyists know, once the space ship is completed according to plan, at that point innovation begins. Not only does the model builder see the possibilities that governed the original construction, but he also sees various scenarios which then suggest different experimental organizations of the Lego pieces that in turn expand a sense of the creative, and further encourage the child to dabble with the unknown, confident that his imagination cannot help but produce a result that will be interesting and acceptable. Again, his self talk has told him so.

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