By now, you should have an email in your inbox containing a link to download the Evidence-Based Practice Worksheets.
When you download that file, you’ll see two worksheets:
Appraisal of the Evidence worksheet
and
Review of the Evidence worksheet
These worksheets can be used in your practice to assess or audit the evidence for validity and effectiveness in creating best-practices and informed decision making. Read more about using these worksheets in development of evidence-based practice here.
Be sure to stay tuned for the opening of The OT Toolbox Community, happening on November 8th.
After that, the worksheets above will no longer be available for free.
We are excited for The OT Toolbox Community to go live and hope to see you there!
Additional Evidence-Based Practice resources you may be interested in:
Kids with executive functioning skill challenges may suffer from impulse control difficulties. The strategies indicated in this post are guides to help teach kids impulse control for improved attention, self-regulation, and learning in the classroom.
You might know of a child who just can’t help themselves in the classroom. They are the ones who are speaking out, interrupting, jumping up from their seat, and distracting their classmates. There are underlying reason behind these behaviors and it is important to consider those causes for impulse-related behaviors. It may be there are unmet sensory needs, difficulty with self-regulation, trouble expressing oneself, emotional causes, or other underlying areas.
More than likely, the kids that need help with impulse control are being addressed in some way by the child’s teacher or team in one way or several. But if impulses are something that need addressed, try the impulse control strategies outlined below.
Parents, teachers, and therapists can use these strategies in different ways. Consider that every child is unique and what works for one child may not work for another. Likewise, it is very important to specifically design a strategy based on individualized assessment of the child.
Why is it difficult for kids to manage their impulses?
Children develop controlled impulses as part of their overall development. The very young child does not have these skills. In fact, there are those of us who have difficulty refraining from a second cookie as adults.
Impulse control requires will power, delayed gratification, and self-control. For the child who struggles with development, sensory processing, attention, physical limitations, cognitive delays, or social impairments, the ability to control ones impulses is very difficult.
These individuals are cognitively and automatically focused on the underlying needs. When other needs such as sensory or balance are the primary focus, it can be quite difficult to refrain from impulses.
Impulses seen in the classroom
Impulse control is part of development. Even adults with fully developed executive functioning skills struggle with impulse control skills. Examples include not going into the kitchen to grab a cookie when you know you have a bag of your favorite treats. Another example is controlling your urge to lounge and scroll social media for hours on end. Impulse control is hard!
But for kids, there is developmentally appropriate impulse control, and challenges in this area.
By developmentally appropriate impulse control, I’m talking about the student that knows it’s not appropriate to reach out and hit another student. That requires impulse control. In the classroom, there are many examples of impulse control (and lack of impulse control) that we see day in and day out.
Some of these are more reactive examples that occur in response to specific to situations, and others are common occurrences, simply because we are talking about kids here.
All of these examples of impulse issues in school can impact learning, safety, and education.
Speaking out
Interrupting classmates
Quitting games
Shoving in lines
Cutting in front of others
Jumping up from seat
Asking questions about irrelevanttopics
Physical impulses
Hyperactive behavior
Hypo-active behavior
Personal boundary issues
Blurting out answers without waiting to be called on
Interrupting teachers or classmates during discussions
Difficulty waiting their turn in group activities or games
Engaging in off-task behaviors instead of staying focused on assignments
Acting without considering consequences, such as grabbing items without permission
Difficulty following classroom rules or instructions
Making impulsive decisions without thinking through the options
Talking or socializing excessively when they should be working
Difficulty staying seated during lessons or at their desk
Being easily distracted by external stimuli or other students’ actions
Overreacting emotionally to minor frustrations or setbacks
Engaging in risky behaviors without considering safety, like climbing on furniture
Struggling to regulate emotions, leading to outbursts or tantrums
Being unable to resist the temptation of distractions like toys or electronic devices
Experiencing challenges in transitioning between activities or tasks
Have you seen any of these examples of impulse control in the classroom?
How to teach kids impulse control:
Certainly! Here’s the rewritten list focusing on supporting kids with impulse control challenges:
Reflective Drawing Journal Pages- Provide drawing journal pages for children to reflect on and pinpoint individual strategies for managing impulses effectively.
Checklist Journal Lists- Offer journal lists for kids to create quick checklists focusing on their strengths, qualities, supports, areas of need, and insights related to impulse control.
Coping Skills Worksheets- Utilize journal worksheets to help children pinpoint coping skills, feelings, emotions, and strategies that work best for them in managing impulses.
Task and Goal Tracking Sheets- Supply daily and weekly tracking sheets for children to monitor tasks and goals, emphasizing progress in impulse control-related activities.
Mindset, Vision, and Habit Pages- Incorporate pages focused on mindset, vision, and habits to assist kids in making a positive impact on their impulse control skills.
Self-Evaluation Sheets- Provide self-evaluation sheets for children to reflect on instances when inhibiting impulses was challenging and to identify what alternative choices could have been made.
Daily Tracker Pages- Offer daily tracker pages for children to record and monitor their daily activities, including instances where impulse control was exercised effectively.
Chore and Task Lists- Create task lists to help children monitor chores and daily tasks, encouraging consistent practice of impulse control in everyday activities.
Habit Improvement Journal Pages- Design journal pages specifically aimed at helping children improve new habits related to impulse control.
Impulse Control Monitoring Charts and Guides- Provide charts and guides for monitoring impulse control behaviors, supporting children in building self-confidence through progress tracking.
Strategy Journal Pages- Offer journal pages focused on strategies for self-reflection and self-regulation, empowering children to succeed both at home and in the classroom.
Goal Setting Sheets- Supply goal sheets for children to set targets related to impulse control and work towards achieving them, fostering persistence and self-discipline.
Mindset Improvement Tools- Introduce tools for improving mindset, helping children develop a set of coping strategies tailored to their needs and conducive to effective impulse control.
Executive functions all require the ability to pay attention. Read about the attention and executive functioning skill connection and the impact of attention on each of the executive functioning skills that children require and use every day.
When a child is easily “triggered” and seems to melt down at any sign of loud noises or excitement…
When you need help or a starting point to teach kids self-regulation strategies…
When you are struggling to motivate or redirect a child without causing a meltdown…
When you’re struggling to help kids explore their emotions, develop self-regulation and coping skills, manage and reflect on their emotions, identify their emotions, and more as they grow…
That’s why I created The Impulse Control Journal.
The Impulse control journal is a printable journal for kids that helps them to identify goals, assess successes, and address areas of needs. The Impulse Control Journal is a printable packet of sheets that help kids with impulse control needs.
The Impulse Control Journal has been totally revamped to include 79 pages of tools to address the habits, mindset, routines, and strategies to address impulse control in kids.
More about the Impulse Control Journal:
30 Drawing Journal Pages to reflect and pinpoint individual strategies
28 Journal Lists so kids can write quick checklists regarding strengths, qualities, supports, areas of need, and insights
8 Journal worksheets to pinpoint coping skills, feelings, emotions, and strategies that work for the individual
Daily and Weekly tracking sheets for keeping track of tasks and goals
Mindset,Vision, and Habit pages for helping kids make an impact
Self-evaluation sheets to self-reflect and identify when inhibition is hard and what choices look like
Daily tracker pages so your child can keep track of their day
Task lists to monitor chores and daily tasks so it gets done everyday
Journal pages to help improve new habits
Charts and guides for monitoring impulse control so your child can improve their self-confidence
Strategy journal pages to help kids use self-reflection and self-regulation so they can succeed at home and in the classroom
Goal sheets for setting goals and working to meet those goals while improving persistence
Tools for improving mindset to help kids create a set of coping strategies that work for their needs
This is a HUGE digital resource that you can print to use over and over again.
There are so many strategies to address attention in kids and activities that can help address attention needs. One tactic that can be a big help is analyzing precursors to behaviors related to attention and addressing underlying needs.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
Today, we have a DIY pencil topper fidget toy. This DIY pencil topper fidget toy is an occupational therapy toy that can be just the tool to help kids write and focus on their writing assignment or the classroom activities.
Sensory needs may impact a child’s ability to attend or a child may present with a typically developed sensory system and show signs of fidgeting during classroom work.
Whether your child has sensory needs or not, a fidget tool is many times just the tool for helping with extra wiggles and movement needs that interfere with handwriting and therefor learning in the classroom. is actually a tool that supports handwriting and self-regulation, but also other areas like fine motor skills. Sometimes handwriting difficulties stem from lack of attention to the task at hand.
This DIY pencil topper fidget toy can be just the tool to help kids write and focus on their writing assignment or the classroom activities.
Sensory needs may impact a child’s ability to attend or a child may present with a typically developed sensory system and show signs of fidgeting during classroom work. Whether your child has sensory needs or not, a fidget tool is many times just the tool for helping with extra wiggles and movement needs that interfere with handwriting and therefore learning in the classroom.
DIY Pencil Topper Fidget Toy
This post contains affiliate links.
There are many fidget toy pencil toppers available on the market. Kids use them to keep their fingers busy and their mind’s engaged in the classroom environment. From the wingnut, nut, and bolt variety to the simple ball-type toppers, pencil topper fidget toys are a classroom tool for providing sensory feedback in a non-distracting way.
We decided to make a couple of our own pencil toppers using materials from our craft bin. This would be a great activity for the whole class and a way to sneak fine motor skills into the day. Kids can use the pipe cleaner and bead fidget toy as a way to help with attention and movement needs.
Use this attention tool is a DIY fidget toy in the classroom or in the home.
First, thread a rubber band through one of the pony beads. You can show your student’s how to do this task to promote a tripod grasp and bilateral hand coordination. Kids can add as many pony beads as they like to the rubber band. Then, wrap the rubber band around the pencil topper.
Next, add pipe cleaners. Kids can be as creative as they like with the pipe cleaners, beads, colors, and other embellishments.
Threading the beads onto the pipe cleaners and bending them to stay on the pencils is a great way to boost those fine motor skills in kids. Try making these pencil toppers as a classroom project that the whole class can use.
Want to try some of the pencil toppers that are on the market? Here are some great ones:
Task initiation is one of the many executive functioning skills that can be a big problem for kids. It happens to all of us. We procrastinate. From the youngest toddler to the oldest among us, we all procrastinate in one way or another. Hey, that stack of bills mixed with junk mail over there on the counter has been calling my name for a couple of weeks now. But procrastination can be a real issue when it gets out of hand or affects every part of life. One of the essential skills that make up executive functioning skills is task initiation.
Task Initiation Executive Functioning Strategies
Task initiation for non-preferred activities might show up with your child when they are told to clean their room or put on their shoes. As parents, we know the struggle that is getting kids to get moving! However, there is a point when procrastination is normal for kids and when it becomes a problem that influences functional skills.
Task Initiation is one Executive Functioning Skill
Initiating a task, whether it be a preferred activity or one that isn’t so preferred (Hellllllo, math homework!), requires several OTHER executive functioning skills: planning, prioritizing, time management, organization, impulse control, attention, and working memory. Despite all of these potential areas of task completion breakdown, the biggest issue is often just getting started.
These easy strategies are tips and tricks that can help kids get started on a task. Either a big job or a small task can seem overwhelming at times. Try using these strategies to help with task initiation.
This is one strategy that can help kids with task initiation. Sometimes, the strategies that you see outlined for procrastination are aimed at older children or high school aged students up through adults. But what about the kids who struggle with procrastination at a younger age? The kids who are beyond age-appropriate levels of not wanting to initiate tasks can be too young developmentally for the procrastination tips that are typically recommended.
Use a timer to help kids with task initiation
This post contains affiliate links.
This easy trick can help kids with task initiation needed to get started on activities. You’ll need a game timer that can be found in many board games. With your child, identify the task that needs to be done. This may be a big project like cleaning a bedroom or a smaller job like tackling the homework folder. Next, break down the tasks. You can write them out in list form or write them on post-it notes that can be pulled off and crumbled up as each job is completed. Once you’ve identified the list of tasks, make a mini-goal to get started. This might be as simple as just reading through the instructions or starting to clean up toys on the floor. For this mini-goal, your child can work with the game timer until the sand has all fallen to the bottom. By working until the intended time has passed, your child has started the job and tackled the biggest issue with procrastination: getting started!
There are many game timers on the market that are perfect for addressing task initiation:
This set comes in a combo set with 30-second, 1-minute, 2-minute, 3-minute, 5-minute, and 10-minute increments.
Try this visual timer with a warning light and optional auditory timer.
More tips to help kids get started and overcome procrastination
Break down tasks
Identify the task
Make mini goals
Create a habit tracker
Make a goal journal
Tell someone else what you’ll accomplish
Use a picture schedule for younger kids
Create a contract
Use a timer for the whole task
Reward systems
Visual schedules
Designated time slot to do specific tasks (like a set homework time)
Looking for more information on executive functioning skills? Like my new Facebook page, Executive Functioning Toolbox for informative posts and resources from around the web.
You can check out our Attention page and Organization page here on the site for more executive functioning skill activities.
Executive functions are heavily dependent on attention. Read about the attention and executive functioning skill connection and the impact of attention on each of the executive functioning skills that children require and use every day.
