Response inhibition
....the ability to voluntarily control a response before acting on it
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“It is a fundamental skill that enables all other executive skills to develop. A child at the mercy of his impulses can’t initiate, sustain attention, plan, organize or problem solve effectively.” Smart But Scattered (link on resource page) |
Addressing difficulties in the area of response inhibitionWeakness in this area of executive function affects all other areas. In the face of behaviors such as shouting out, grabbing things from others, and getting distracted from the lesson, you will have to be "on your game" as you address these weaknesses. In order to "interrupt" ahead of time (environmental supports), you'll have plan carefully because the "actions" that you want to get ahead of are uninhibited in the child. The child acts without stopping to consider how that action might be perceived or what might happen as a result. You have to get into their heads to recognize when uninhibited behaviors might occur in the environment.
Helping children to build response inhibition might involve teaching the use of waiting periods for things he wants to do or to have. You might consider having him "earn" opportunities as a way to build in a waiting period before gratification. |
Click the button below to go read an article called, Developing a Brain Filter. It is an article about response inhibition and a strategy to consider to address it.
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To see ideas to consider when faced with weakness in response inhibition, see the document below.
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PAX GBG: Good Behavior GameClassroom teachers might consider a strategy like PAX-GBG. In PAX, children identify good behaviors (PAX) and behavior mistakes (SPLEEMS). Then, children are divided into teams and the teams try to commit as few errors as possible. Winning teams earn rewards which are brief, fun activities. The game is played in increasingly longer periods of time. What works in this game for students with ADHD is that the structure of the game helps the students to remember to think before acting and to focus on their behavior, the time periods are very short at the beginning and students are allowed to encourage each other. Additionally, the shared vocabulary of PAX-GBG makes prompting more efficient in the classroom.
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Click here to go back to the page that lists all the executive functions so that you can choose which one to look at next. You can also use the menu bar at the top of the page.
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Click here to go to Working Memory.
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