How do you teach internal control?

I’ve never had to consciously teach it. My kids just developed it as they grew. The pros say it should start developing around the age of 4 or 5. However, I watch a 7 year old after school who doesn’t seem to even have a glimmer of it yet. He’s a real attention seeker and often copies what his 14 month old sister does, hoping to get the same reaction from me that his sister got. Of course, that doesn’t happen.

Today I turned on the vacuum cleaner and the baby ran away, squealing and flapping her arms. Then her brother ran away, flapping his arms and squealing.

So I sat him down and I said, “Hey…there is something inside of you that tells you right from wrong. Everybody has it. You need to start listening to that, because some times there won’t be any one around to tell you right from wrong, and you have to decide for yourself. Now, if you listen carefully would that little voice tell you that running away from the vacuum cleaner was right, wrong, or silly.”
He thought for a moment and said, “Silly.”
At that point I praised him.

Is this even going to work? Any other ideas? Should I give it a name, like a shorter version of his name so I can say, “What does Bob say?” Although something is telling me that’s not a good idea…

This ones for you JCA!