Curriculum
Inhibitory Control
Inhibitory Control is the ability to resist a strong inclination to do one thing and instead to do what is most appropriate or needed. Instead of reacting with what is on the mind at that moment, the child has to stop or inhibit that inclination and enact something else. Examples are:
- Being able to think before you act. For example,
instead of grabbing the toy you want from another child, you
think of social strategies that you could use instead, like
asking for a turn or offering the child another toy. Instead
of giving in to your first impulse, you think about what to
do. Young children without self-regulation often act first and
think later, just the opposite of having inhibitory control.
What looks like aggressive behavior (grabbing toys from other
children, pushing to get ahead) is often just reactive behavior.
Planning ahead of time and monitoring one’s actions are
important skills enabled by inhibitory control.
- Being able to learn something new that conflicts with
what you usually do. For example if you learn that
the letter “a” is called “a” and says
“a,” then when you learn the short vowel sound such
as “a” in “cat,” you will have to suppress
your habitual reaction to use the long vowel sound and instead
use the short vowel sound to read “cat” correctly.
Another example can be seen in an experiment where the children
were taught to read the word “dog” in different
contexts with different fonts, etc. When children were shown
the word “dog” which they could read under a picture
of a cat, the children said that the word “dog”
should be read as “cat.” They could not suppress
the strategy of using the picture to read the text.
- Acting appropriately when tempted to act otherwise.
For example, you stay on task despite boredom or tantalizing
temptations, like the fact that other children are laughing
and joking around. There are many, many temptations in the average
classroom, but we expect children to have sufficient self-regulation
to ignore these, and to practice a skill that might be difficult
or frustrating. Inhibitory control is necessary for delayed
gratification as described in the famous “marshmallow”
test where children were asked to wait to eat the marshmallow.
- Paying attention despite distractions. For example, making your self ignore others who are talking so you can concentrate on what the teacher is saying.
Inhibition, thus, allows us a measure of control over our attention and our actions, rather than simply being controlled by external stimuli, our emotions, or engrained habitual tendencies.