Response inhibition is the capacity to think before acting, and to resist the urge to say or do something. This ability allows a person the time to evaluate a situation and how his or her behavior might affect it.
Response inhibition is key to effective executive functions skills.
Response inhibition is one of the first executive functions skill to emerge during infancy, usually around 5 to 12 months of age. At that time, we provided our frontal lobes to our children by keeping their environment safe. We did this when we used gates, playpens, and put potentially dangerous items out of reach. As diligent as we were, inevitable accidents would occur and along with them came natural consequences.
We know some of the ways that people can have difficulty with response inhibition: difficulty following rules, blurting answers out, starting a task without fully listening to the directions,…
You can help strengthen the executive functions skill of response inhibition and increase their self-control by using the following strategy, SELF-CONTROL:
Specify what impulsive behavior will be addressed
Establish when the impulsive behavior happens
List the desired behavior
Find ways to display desired behavior
Cue when desired behavior is expected
Offer a variety of cues to choose from (verbal, nonverbal)
Natural Consequence can be positive or negative
Try new strategy ahead of time
Regular practice of strategy
Observe how you did with strategy
Listen to yourself about how you did