Inhibitory Control: The Ability to Pause Before Acting

A child is staring out the classroom window while the teacher explains important exam information. A teenager intends to start an assignment, but somehow ends up scrolling online for an hour. A young child jumps in to defend a friend, before stopping to think about the consequences.

From the outside, these situations can look like poor choices. But often, they reflect something more complex: a difficulty accessing inhibitory control in the moment.

Have you ever watched a child do something and thought, "They knew better than that"? If so, you are not alone. Inhibitory control is one of the foundational executive function skills that helps us pause, think, and resist acting on our first impulse. When inhibitory control is harder to access, everyday situations can become much more challenging than they appear from the outside. Understanding how it works can help us better support children and young people when that pause is difficult to find.

What Is Inhibitory Control?

Inhibitory control is often described as the brain's "braking system". It allows us to stop, think, and consider our actions before responding.

This skill helps us resist distractions, manage impulses, wait our turn, and think about the consequences of our behaviour.

In everyday life, inhibitory control might look like a young child waiting briefly for a turn during a game, or a teenager accepting a referee's decision without immediately arguing. For adults, it may be resisting the urge to check a phone during an important meeting.

Why Do Some People Struggle with Inhibitory Control?

When inhibitory control is difficult, people may appear impulsive, distracted, or emotionally reactive. They may call out in class, despite being told to raise their hand repeatedly. They may spend hours on YouTube when they said they were going to do homework. They may not be able to look away when something interesting is happening out the window, just when the teacher is providing instructions. They may jump into defending their friend in the playground, without considering the rules around fighting.

Often these can look like “bad” behaviour or choices. Parents often tell me, "But they know the rule," or "We've talked about this so many times before." The challenge is often not understanding the rule. The challenge is accessing that information quickly enough when emotions, distractions, or strong impulses take over.

When inhibitory control is reduced, the gap between noticing an urge and acting on it can become much smaller. The person may genuinely want to make a different decision, but their brain has less time to pause, reflect, and consider alternatives before responding.

The Ferrari Brain and Bicycle Brakes Analogy

Dr Edward Hallowell, Psychiatrist, famously described ADHD as having a Ferrari engine for a brain with bicycle brakes. While originally used to describe ADHD, many people who experience difficulties with inhibitory control may recognise aspects of this experience. 

The engine can quickly roar into life in response to an interest, and it can move so quickly! This is often a brain that can notice patterns, generate creative ideas, think quickly, and make connections that others miss. Which can be fantastic skills in some settings (hello comedians, lawyers, and artists!).  The flip side is, the braking system may not be as strong or as fast the engine. This can make it difficult to consider the impact/consequences of your reactions before they occur.  

Importantly, “impulsive behaviour” is not usually a reflection of motivation or character. It often reflects the brain having a harder time regulating competing urges, thoughts, and emotions.

How Can We Support Inhibitory Control?

To support children and young people who experience difficulties with inhibitory control, we can focus both on supporting the development of inhibitory control and on adapting the environment to reduce unnecessary demands on it.

Supporting the person

Supporting the development of inhibitory control takes time, practice, and self-understanding. A helpful first step is to become curious/increase awareness of what is happening in the moments before attention drifts, before an impulsive response occurs, or before a distraction takes over.

Helping young people become curious about their own experiences can be more effective than repeatedly reminding them to "try harder" or "pay attention". Did they notice when they were off task? How? What do they notice in their body when they are becoming distracted or when they are about to jump into action? Do they notice particular thoughts, emotions, or situations that make it easier or harder to ignore distractions? Are there certain environments where they find it easier to pause and think before acting?

As self-awareness grows, young people can begin experimenting with strategies that create a small pause between an impulse and a response. Again, these are best created with the young person: Can they think of some ideas to try next time when they notice they are off task? Do they want any external support to help them practice this?   

For some, strategies might involve taking a breath before speaking. Others may benefit from visual reminders, cue cards, checklists, or agreed prompts from supportive adults. The goal is not to eliminate impulses, but to increase the likelihood that the brain has enough time to consider different options before acting.

Importantly, different strategies work for different people. A strategy that is helpful for one young person may be unhelpful for another. Involving the young person in identifying challenges, generating ideas, and reviewing what works not only supports the development of inhibitory control, but also other executive function skills such as cognitive flexibility and metacognition.

Supports in the environment

To create supports around the young person, first get curious with them to identify when they find it hardest to resist impulses (i.e., when on their computer, when next to the shelf with all their toys) and what they may find most distracting (i.e., when getting ready for school, in the classroom, when doing homework etc), and come up with ideas together on how to minimise these distractions.

Remember: distractions are not always external. Sometimes a young person's own thoughts, worries, ideas, or daydreams can pull their attention away from a task.

Putting supports in the environment often involves minimising temptations and distractions by either removing the items (move phone away while studying), or moving to a location with fewer distractions (i.e., getting dressed in lounge room, away from toys in bedroom).  

Some ideas young people have found useful include:

• Create shortcuts on phones and computers to block social media and alerts during homework (for example, "study mode").

• Use headphones if siblings or classmates are distracting during tasks.

• Remove phones during homework sessions.

• Close or hide unnecessary tabs on the web browser.

• Complete homework in a shared space. When other people can see us, we often feel more accountable and may be less likely to drift into games or other distractions.

• Create visual cues. This might include a visual reminder to raise a hand before speaking, a visual routine showing what comes next, or a cue card reminding a young person to pause and check their work before submitting it.

Importantly, ensure you identify potential distractions and solutions with the young person! Removing a young person’s phone for them, versus them volunteering to trial doing homework without their phone, will both have very different outcomes! And as a bonus, identify obstacles and solutions with them, as well as reviewing the outcomes over time, encourages them to look inwards which is a great first step in building their self-awareness and other executive function skills.

A Final Thought About Inhibitory Control

Inhibitory control is not a fixed trait. Even people with strong inhibitory control will find it harder to pause and think when they are tired, stressed, hungry, overwhelmed, sick, or experiencing strong emotions. Executive functions are influenced not only by skill, but also by capacity. Sometimes checking and increasing the current capacity of the young person (give them some food, encourage them to take a break, etc), can go a long way to supporting inhibitory control.

Where to Next?

Curious about the other executive function skills? Visit the Dandelion Hub Resource Library for easy-to-understand information, practical strategies, and downloadable resources.

You can also explore our free courses designed for parents and carers, or educators and allied health professionals who want to better understand and support executive functioning in everyday life.

Understanding inhibitory control is often the first step. Exploring the other executive function skills can help you build a more complete picture of what's happening beneath behaviour.

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Written by: Dr. Ruth Tesselaar, Neuropsychologist and Founder of Dandelion Hub