Cognitive flexibility and problem solving are essential executive functioning skills that allow children to adapt to changing situations, consider multiple perspectives, and develop effective solutions when faced with challenges. These skills enable your child to switch between different tasks, adjust their thinking when rules change, and approach problems from various angles. For students with learning differences, developing these skills can be particularly challenging, as they often prefer routine and predictability.
Children who have difficulty with these executive functions may exhibit one or more of the following behaviors:
- Get upset or frustrated when plans change unexpectedly
- Struggle with transitions between activities or environments
- Prefer to do things the same way every time
- Have difficulty finding alternative solutions when their first approach doesn’t work
- Become stuck on one idea or method even when it’s not effective
- Find it challenging to see others’ points of view
- Resist trying new activities or approaches to tasks
To better support your child, it’s helpful to understand the different aspects of cognitive flexibility and problem solving. They include:
- Transitioning: Moving smoothly between tasks, activities, or environments
- Perspective-Taking: Considering different viewpoints and approaches to situations
- Adapting to Change: Adjusting to unexpected events or changes in routines
- Problem-Solving: Identifying issues and generating multiple potential solutions
- Strategy-Shifting: Recognizing when a current approach isn’t working and trying something new
Strategies to Support Cognitive Flexibility
1. Prepare for Transitions. Transitions often trigger inflexibility in children with learning differences. Help your child navigate transitions by:
- Using visual schedules that outline the day’s activities and transitions
- Providing advance notice before transitions (“In five minutes, we’ll be cleaning up”)
- Creating transition rituals such as a special phrase, song, or movement that signals a change
- Using timers to provide a visual countdown to transitions
- Discuss larger upcoming transitions during calm moments
2. Develop a Problem-Solving Framework. Give your child a structured approach to tackle problems:
- Teach a simple step-by-step process: identify the problem, brainstorm solutions, pick one to try, evaluate results and try another if necessary
- Create a visual problem-solving map for reference
- Practice with low-stakes problems before using with challenging situations
- Use phrases such as “Let’s think of three ways to solve this” to encourage multiple solutions
3. Play Flexibility Games. Make cognitive flexibility fun through games and activities:
- “What else could it be?” Look at objects and brainstorm alternative uses
- Category switching games. Name items in alternating categories (animal, food, animal, food)
- Board games that require changing strategies
- “Opposite Day.” Do routine activities in reverse or with a twist
- Role-playing scenarios with unexpected changes
4. Model Flexible Thinking. Children learn from watching adults navigate challenges:
- Think aloud when you encounter problems (“I was planning to go to the park, but it’s raining. I need to think of something else we can do”)
- Demonstrate your own flexibility when plans change
- Point out when you make mistakes and how you adjust
- Share stories about times when being flexible led to positive outcomes
- Acknowledge when changing course is difficult for you too
5. Create Safe Opportunities for Change. Help your child practice flexibility in controlled situations:
- Introduce small, planned changes to familiar routines
- Create “what if” scenarios and brainstorm responses together
- Practice with role-play before challenging real-life situations
- Develop “Plan B” thinking as a regular habit
- Gradually increase the complexity of changes as your child builds confidence
6. Use Visual Supports. Visual aids can help make abstract concepts more concrete:
- Create a “flexible thinking vs. stuck thinking” chart
- Use social stories to illustrate different ways to respond to changes
- Draw or map out multiple solutions to problems
- Use color-coding to represent different perspectives or approaches
- Create visual decision trees for common challenges
7. Celebrate Growth and Effort. Recognize and reinforce your child’s progress:
- Praise specific instances of flexible thinking (“I noticed how quickly you adjusted when we had to change our plans.”)
- Focus on the process rather than just the outcome
- Create a “flexibility journal” to document successes
- Share observations about how flexibility led to positive results
- Acknowledge that being flexible can be difficult and validate their efforts
Creating Consistency Across Settings
As you and your child work together, collaborating across settings can lead to more meaningful progress. To that end, try any of the following that fit your child’s situation:
- Share successful strategies with teachers, caregivers, and family members
- Develop consistent language around flexibility and problem-solving
- Create simple visual reminders that can travel between home and school
- Ask teachers to highlight examples of your child’s flexible thinking
- Ensure all adults use the same problem-solving framework
Remember that developing cognitive flexibility takes time, especially for children with learning differences. Some days will be better than others, and that’s perfectly normal. Focus on progress, not perfection, and celebrate small victories along the way.
Jenna Prada, M.Ed, a certified teacher and administrator, is the Director of Learning at Sadar Psychological.
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