E052 · Thinking, attention & executive function
Difficulty shifting between ideas, tasks or strategies
What might be happening when a young person finds it particularly difficult to move away from one thought, activity, rule or way of doing something and adopt another?
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Overview
Flexible functioning requires us to change course.
Sometimes we need to stop one activity and start another. Sometimes new information means that our original plan no longer works. Sometimes another person sees a situation differently. Sometimes the rule that worked yesterday does not apply today.
The capacity to adjust thinking and action in response to changing demands is often described as cognitive flexibility or shifting.
Young people vary considerably in how easy this is.
A young person may understand the new expectation perfectly well while still finding the process of disengaging from the previous one difficult.
This is different from simply refusing to change their mind.
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What this might look like
A young person might:
- continue using a strategy after it has stopped working
- struggle to switch between activities
- become distressed when a rule changes
- repeatedly return to the same idea
- find alternative solutions difficult to generate
- become stuck on one interpretation of an event
- continue a task after being told it is complete
- need significant time to disengage from an absorbing activity
- struggle when a teacher changes the expected method
- become frustrated when another person suggests a different approach
- find open-ended tasks harder than tasks with one clear route
- repeatedly restart after small changes
- struggle to move on following an argument or mistake
- know that plans have changed but continue acting according to the original plan.
The difficulty may involve thought, behaviour, attention or emotional adjustment — and these do not always occur together.
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When an approach is not working
Problems frequently require us to revise what we were doing. For some young people, that shift is much harder than the original problem.
They may recognise that something has gone wrong yet struggle to generate another possibility, compare alternatives or let go of the solution they had expected to work. As frustration increases, access to alternative ideas may become harder still.
This should not automatically be interpreted as stubbornness.
Ask whether the barrier is generating alternatives, tolerating an unexpected outcome, evaluating alternatives, emotional regulation, understanding the problem, perfectionism or changing away from an established plan. These are not interchangeable.
Reduce pressure before demanding flexibility. Externalise possible options. Model alternative routes rather than simply saying “try something else”. Preserve the young person's authorship by helping them generate or choose possibilities rather than immediately solving the problem for them.
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Developmental expression
At this stage
Early childhood
Flexible switching develops substantially during early childhood. Young children naturally rely on predictable rules and adult support, so expectations must remain developmentally appropriate.
Early childhood
Flexible switching develops substantially during early childhood. Young children naturally rely on predictable rules and adult support, so expectations must remain developmentally appropriate.
Middle childhood
Classroom activities increasingly require switching between subjects, rules, strategies, social roles and competing perspectives.
Early adolescence
Greater independence brings more ambiguous situations and fewer explicit rules. Social interactions increasingly require recognising multiple perspectives and adapting rapidly to changing contexts.
Later adolescence
Young people encounter complex decisions in which there may be several valid approaches and plans must frequently be revised in response to new information.
Choose each stage to see how the presentation and surrounding expectations may change over time.
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Strengths and differences
A strong tendency to remain with one idea or approach can coexist with:
- persistence
- consistency
- depth
- loyalty to principles
- sustained concentration
- systematic thinking
- reliability
- expertise built through prolonged focus.
Flexibility should not become shorthand for agreeing with adults.
Sometimes maintaining a position is entirely appropriate.
The relevant question is whether the young person can shift when they themselves need or want to, particularly when circumstances have genuinely changed.
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Top tips for support
- Give advance notice when a shift is coming.
- Make explicit what is changing and what is staying the same.
- Allow time between activities.
- Avoid unnecessary changes merely to test flexibility.
- Offer two workable alternatives when a strategy has failed.
- Help the young person compare approaches rather than simply telling them theirs is wrong.
- Use language such as “another possibility might be…”
- Validate frustration when plans change.
- Teach flexible problem-solving during calm periods.
- Distinguish principled disagreement from difficulty shifting.
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Things needing careful planning
There is an important ethical distinction here.
Helping a young person develop flexibility should increase their agency and repertoire, not train them to abandon preferences, boundaries or legitimate objections whenever an adult asks.
The question should not be:
“How do we make them more flexible for us?”
but:
“How do we help them have more than one workable route when circumstances change?”
Difficulty shifting can also overlap with transitions, repetitive thinking, perfectionism, uncertainty and emotional regulation. The pattern should therefore be understood functionally rather than reduced to one label.
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Practical support principles
Useful supports include:
- advance warning
- visual transition information
- identifying Plan A and Plan B
- explicit contingency planning
- practising alternative strategies
- comparison of different routes to the same goal
- transition objects or routines where developmentally appropriate
- recording where an interrupted activity can be resumed
- allowing completion of a meaningful unit before switching
- perspective-taking without demanding agreement
- modelling adult flexibility
- reflecting afterwards on occasions where changing strategy helped.
From understanding to support
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Often useful
- transition supports
- visual and anticipatory approaches
- executive-function scaffolding
- collaborative problem solving
- environmental predictability
Worth considering
- metacognitive approaches
- problem-solving interventions
- cognitive-flexibility activities
- anxiety-informed approaches
- regulation support around unexpected change.
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Evidence and cautions
Cognitive flexibility is widely recognised as a core component of executive functioning and involves adapting behaviour or thinking as circumstances change. It develops substantially through childhood and continues to mature into adolescence. (1)
However, flexibility is not one simple skill. Contemporary reviews describe different forms of shifting and flexibility with distinct developmental trajectories, and evidence for transfer from targeted training remains heterogeneous. (2)
Executive-function research also shows that cognitive flexibility occurs alongside interacting processes such as working memory and inhibition, reinforcing the value of understanding the presentation within context rather than assuming an isolated deficit. (3)
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Public evidence sources
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Possible explanatory lenses
Relevant possibilities include:
- executive functioning
- cognitive flexibility
- working memory
- inhibition
- anxiety
- difficulty managing uncertainty
- transitions
- perfectionism
- sensory or emotional overload
- communication and language
- intense interests or attention
- previous experiences of unpredictability
- environmental demands.
About this entry’s source
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