Wednesday Words- Impulse Control

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Wednesday Words

We will look at the words that define us.
 If you have spent much time teaching young children you have heard of impulse control, but what is it? 
 First let's look at the brain:
source
The main part of the brain that is in control during the act of stopping to think actions through is the frontal lobe.  As stated in an article by the Livestrong Foundation, found here,
Higher-level thinking is supported by the frontal lobes. Activity in these lobes allows us to reason, make judgments, make plans for the near and far future, make choices, take action, solve problems and generally control our living environment. Without fully functioning frontal lobes, you may have intelligence, but you wouldn’t be able to put it to use.
The quote mentions "fully functioning" frontal lobes. When do they become "fully functioning?"  I'm glad you asked..... around the mid-twenties.  Although, I'm sure many of us have met those rouge thirty- or forty-somethings who don't seem to have it all together.
 
Now that we know a little bit more about impulse control, why is it important in the classroom setting?  I think the best illustration for this is the famous "marshmallow experiment." The first time I heard about this was as a child watching the Dilley sextuplets trying to not eat M&Ms.  Did anyone else watch this?  Well I found the Youtube video of it!
 
The original marshmallow experiment was done way back in the 1960's.  The researcher, a guy by the name of Walter Mischel told the young subjects they could have two marshmallows if they waited to eat them until he came back (about 15 minutes) or the one now if they couldn't wait.  Amazingly about 2/3 waited!  Those children were later shown to be better students and have higher test score than the others in the experiment.
 
Fascinating right?!? Teaching children what they can do during wait times helps them learn skills they need to build that impulse control up to the Mt. Everest amount they will need to resist things they really want (I don't know if I could have resisted the candy!).  Need some ideas on waiting games?  Look here.
 

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