Impulse Control, or self-control, is the ability to control your behaviors and feelings. This impulse control printable asks students to think through both the impulsive and thoughtful responses to different situations.
Children who struggle with impulse control may have issues with school rules. For example they may call out in class instead of raising their hands, run in the hallway, or hit, kick or push as an impulsive angry reaction. These children may also have other troubles at home or in friendships like constantly interrupting in conversations or not being able to patiently wait for a parent’s attention.
So many adults’ New Year’s resolutions have to do with impulse control. Don’t eat the doughnuts in the staff room. Hold back that nasty comment you were about to make. Go to the gym instead of getting sucked into three hours of The Bachelor.
There are two options in these situations: go along with your impulse, or stop and exercise self-control.
This activity labels these options as MELT (impulsive choice) and FREEZE (thoughtful choice).
Think about the games Freeze Dance or Freeze Tag — you freeze when you are using self-control. On this impulse control printable, students will think about how they could “freeze,” or stop to make a good choice, in real-life situations. They’ll also think about what the impulsive choice would be in that situation – when they would “melt,” or give in to their impulses.
Students must describe what their MELT and FREEZE choices would look like in different situations. For example, your mom is on the phone when you get home from school, and you want to tell her about the A+ you got on your paper. The MELT choice would be running up to your mom yelling about your A+ and/or waving the paper in her face. The FREEZE choice would be to wait until your mom gets off the phone, then share your excitement about the A+ with her.
After going through this impulse control printable with your students, you could have them come up with their own examples of situations to think through as well!
