Stop-Think-Act Impulse Control Cards and Log

About this resource

EVERYTHING INSIDE — 23 pages

• A Stop-Think-Act Chart: the named three-step process on one poster, meant to be posted and taught from, not cut apart
• 3 step cards, 2 inches square, sized for velcro dots — Stop, Think, Act — printed as two full sets (6 cut pieces) on one sheet, so a spare set is always on hand
• The chart and cards twice: a full-color set for the wall and the board, and a black-and-white ink-saver set for the photocopier
• A Stop-Think-Act Board with three labeled slots (Stop, Think, Act) in order and a five-slot "Moments Today" strip with a line under each
• Two desk-size Stop-Think-Act boards on one sheet, for a folder or a second setting
• 12 blank reminder cards with a type-in word line, for a student-specific calming phrase or strategy
• A how-to page: before the first day, the three moves every time, choosing what to do at Act, when Act does not go smoothly, writing down what changes, why the three cards stay fixed
• A Stop-Think-Act Log (15 rows: date, time, what was happening, stopped before acting, what was chosen for Act, help given)
• A weekly roll-up (8 weeks) with a percent-stopped-before-acting graph
• A filled example — an invented student, one day on the log and three weeks on the roll-up, every number re-counted from its own row
• A family page with a mini three-step board and two full sets of the three cards on one sheet
• A hand-off page so a paraprofessional or another classroom runs the same process the same way
• A phrase bank: 24 lines in 6 groups (spoken lines for the chart and board, written starters for the log, the roll-up and the note home)
• A storage and binder label sheet: 11 labels and a spine strip
• Start Here, a contents page with page thumbnails, and a "what's next" back page

A pause-before-acting process that comes with its own data. Most impulse-control cue sets stop at the three pictures; this one adds a practice board, a log, a weekly roll-up and a phrase bank behind it, so a moment at school turns into a line on a page a case manager can bring to a meeting.

The Chart And Cards

• The chart: the three steps on one page, for teaching and for the wall — Stop, Think, Act, each with a one-line description of what the step means
• The cards (3, printed as two full sets) — Stop, Think, Act: the same three steps, cut apart so one of each can move onto the board, with a spare set in reserve

Every picture is a concrete object, not an abstract idea — a stop sign, a thought bubble, a checkmark — printed with its word underneath on every card. This is a single named three-step sequence, not a bank of interchangeable strategies, so the set is three steps rather than a padded word list; every step is used in the same order every time. Cards are 2 inches square; the board's slots are sized to match.

The Board

• Stop-Think-Act Board — three slots labeled Stop, Think and Act in order, with arrows between them, and a "Moments Today" strip of five smaller slots with a line under each.
• Two desk-size Stop-Think-Act boards — two boards on one sheet, cut apart, for a folder or a second student.

The boards carry no pictures, so they print the same in color or black and white.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a fillable PDF: type into the board's slots and lines, the log, the roll-up, the family page, the hand-off page and the blank reminder cards, or print and use a pen. The chart and card pages print on cardstock or plain paper; the cards cut along dashed lines. It works offline with no account or subscription. It is NOT an editable online slideshow or word-processor document.

It is a way to show a three-step pause-before-acting process in pictures and keep a record of when it was used. It is not a behavior plan, a clinical finding, a screening tool or a program of any kind, and it promises no outcome. It carries no prompt hierarchy, fading schedule or mastery rule; it does not say why a choice was made or what to do about it — how the process is used with a student, and for how long, is what your team's plan says. The goal line and the criterion field are blanks for your district's own wording and your team's own number. The log counts one thing: whether the student stopped before acting.

Who This Is For

Special education teachers and paraprofessionals teaching a concrete, repeatable pause-before-acting routine to students who need one, case managers who need that use to show up as data, and the families who get the home page sent home.

More In The Collection

This is one of several sets in the Visual Supports Collection, alongside Self-Regulation Zones Check-In Chart and Strategy Cards, Waiting and Self-Control Cue Cards with Log, Classroom Attention and Listening Cue Cards and Manners and Polite Language Cue Cards; more picture-card sets are being added to the collection regularly, all on the same cards-plus-data shape.

Pictures (color pages): Noto Emoji by Google, Apache License 2.0. Pictures (ink-saver pages): Fluent Emoji, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, MIT License.