Teach Your Child About Self-Control

If you are a parent, you might be wondering or having a low time teaching your child ‘Self-control’. And, of course, we are here to help you out.

1. At what age, a child is capable of self-control?

The pre-frontal cortex in our brain plays an essential role in self-control. This pre-frontal cortex takes about 25 years to develop fully. So I would say, in general, we are capable of self-control once we are 25 years old. Since the kids are biologically incapable of it, we shouldn’t expect too much from them. What we can do, is be their substitute frontal lobe. By doing this, we keep motivating them towards self-control persistently. 
 

2. What causes a lack of self-control?

Children lack self-control if they don’t have an adult, or the environment around them, to imitate and learn. Since they can’t exert self-control internally yet, they look for cues from their environment and the adults.
 

3. Why is it important to teach children about self-control?

Children will sooner or later face various circumstances or situations where they don’t have a concerned adult around them to stop them from doing something or motivate them to do something. In these moments, their practice of self-control will prove to be very useful. 
 

4. Do you have any suggestions for parents trying to teach self-control to their kids?

When a child starts to make better choices, it might be limiting their own video game time, waking up on time, or eating right. As a result, they require lesser consequences from adults.