What Were You Thinking?

When you’re a child, it’s not easy controlling your impulse reactions – kids do things before they think all the time. Strengthen executive function skills and empower impetuous young people with a humorous story about an impulsive third-grader. Teach students a strategy of four simple steps for stopping, thinking, decision-making, and choosing the right behavior.

Third-grader Braden is a real character. He loves to be the center of attention. Everyone just LOVES his jokes, witty comments, and immediate reactions. Or at least that’s what he thinks. He comic genius, as he sees it, causes his friends to look at him in awe.

But when he is corrected in class for ill-timed jokes, and an impulsive reaction during a game of dodge ball ends up with a classmate in tears, Braden’s teachers and parents start working with him on how to control his impulses.

Will the lessons provided by the adults in Braden’s life help him see a better way to manage his impulses? Find out in this hilarious story, the first book in the Executive FUNction series by author and school counselor Bryan Smith. Tips for parents and educators are included at the end of the storybook to help children to control their impulses.