Skills Guide
Teaching: Impulse Control
Impulse Control
Why This Skill Matters
Impulse control supports resilience by allowing students to pause before reacting. Without this skill, emotions or peer pressure often drive decisions that lead to regret or negative consequences. Teaching impulse control helps students protect goals, relationships, and opportunities.
Student Challenges This Skill Helps Address
- Acting without thinking
- Emotional outbursts
- Risk-taking behavior
How WhyTry Builds This Skill
WhyTry builds impulse control through Emotional Regulation, where students learn to recognize triggers and manage reactions. This is reinforced in Decision-Making & Consequences, which highlights how impulsive choices impact outcomes. Facilitators help students practice pause-and-choose strategies that support resilient decision-making.
Emotional Regulation
(“Defense Mechanisms”)
In Emotional Regulation, impulse control is developed by teaching students how to recognize emotional triggers and pause before reacting. Facilitators guide students to practice strategies that create space between feeling and action. Processing emphasizes that controlling impulses protects goals, relationships, and opportunities.
Decision-Making & Consequences
(“Reality Ride”)
Decision-Making & Consequences reinforces impulse control by helping students reflect on outcomes of impulsive versus intentional choices. Facilitators guide students to examine how slowing down decisions leads to better results. This processing supports resilience by strengthening self-control in real-life situations.