Helping children find personal meaning and improve proficiency while submersed in the value of sport is critical to emotional/social development. Self-talk (ST) is a cognitive learning strategy that we can harness to encourage and prepare children to solve a problem or address an imminent situation, while acknowledging that they mature at different rates. A child's ST could be helpful or hurtful, encouraging or disparaging, thought provoking or dull, depending upon the athlete's interactions with teachers and coaches. ST is a skill teachers and coaches may emphasize which will help those students and athletes in their care grow and develop toward their full potential.