Impulse control in older children?

[LunaMom]

Lately my dd, age four (almost 4 1/2) has been doing a lot of things that she KNOWS are wrong, yet can't seem to stop herself. Is this normal for this age? I mean, here I have this extremely bright, capable, articulate kid and suddenly she seems to be looking for trouble. In the past week I have caught her climbing her bookcase to the top, standing on the open toilet seat with one foot on either side, and just yesterday, drawing all over the coffee table with a pen, hard enough to leave scratches, even though she's used pens responsibly on that table a million times before. We've talked about it many times and I've explained about thinking before acting, but she comes right out and tells me that she knows these things are wrong but she just does them anyway and she doesn't know why. She's starting to feel really bad about herself because of it, even though she doesn't get screamed at or punished or anything. I'm not sure what else to do. So is this a common problem at this age? And any suggestions on where it's coming from and/or additional ways to handle it?

TIA!

[SoHappy]

My ds is almost 4. One of the big things he couldn't control was climbing on the barstools. He's gotten hurt doing it, but couldn't stop himself. It was making me nuts. He wouldn't even realize he was doing it again. Then I remembered something I'd heard about holistic memory and involving mind, body and vision to create memories. So one day I stopped him, sat him down, and gently said, "No climbing on the barstools" three times and had him say it with me. Then I started clapping and singing it kinda silly. I had him do it with me. Then I took him over to the stools and had him look at the stools while singing the song and clapping.

What a wonder. Since then, he hasn't done it again. I've seen him several times standing in front of the stools clapping and singing the song. He sees those stools and it triggers the clapping and song as a reminder. He gets very proud that he has reminded himself without my intervention. This method has since worked on other things.

Maybe you could try this fun method with your daughter? "Pens are for paper. Pens are for pa-pa-paper!" "My feet stay on the floor. My feet feet feet stay on the flo-o-o-or!"