TIME MANAGEMENT SKILL; LIFE MANAGEMENT SKILL.

 

TIME MANAGEMENT SKILL; LIFE MANAGEMENT SKILL. 

When we talk about life skills, time management skill is one of the most important, little wonder Idowu Koyenikan said that “Time management is life management”

In our post on executive functioning skills, we introduced the concept of Time management and other life skills which make up executive functioning skills. It is also worth noting that the skills that make up executive functioning are interwoven. Success in one is dependent on success in another. For instance, it doesn’t matter how well planned out an activity is, if the time available to execute that project is not managed appropriately, then that project will most likely not succeed. This interrelatedness also applies to other executive functioning skills.

 

What Is Time Management?

Time Management is the process of properly utilizing the time allotted for specific tasks to achieve efficiency, productivity, and success. Time is a really valuable asset that must be managed effectively because just like Benjamin Franklin said “The lost time is never found again”

One hallmark of highly successful people is their ability to manage their time properly. If you must yell and scream and push before your kids finish tasks within specified time limits, then you need to start working on their time management skills.

 Time management should also include prioritizing. The child needs to know what is most important, what should be done first, and allot appropriate time for each task.  Some of the benefits of time management include:

       a.       It helps to reduce time wastage and increase productivity.

       b.      It improves academic performance in children.

       c.       It helps to reduce stress and burning out because children can choose what they spend time on.

       d.      It eliminates procrastination because assignments are executed promptly so there are usually no outstanding tasks to push forward.

       e.      It boosts self-confidence. The increased productivity that comes with proper time management gives children a healthy sense of confidence in their abilities to deliver on tasks promptly and efficiently.

 

 

Simple Activities That Help to Boost the Abilities of Children to Manage Time:

  1.   Teach time and time management skills. Explain the concept of time to them, and teach them how to tell time. Teach them the qualities of time, which includes that it is irreversible and once gone it can’t be recalled, that it is measurable, and finally that it is valuable and should be used wisely.

   2.   Also, teach them priority placement. Apply the time management quadrant to teach them the concept of what is urgent, and what can be ignored. This will help them to identify what they should devote more time to and what shouldn’t even get a fraction of their time at all. This is very appropriate for older children(tweens and teenagers)

   3.   Use the right diction to reference time. Start early to quantify activities and actions in terms of time and duration. When talking to them use words and phrases like: hours, seconds, minutes, weeks months, yesterday, tomorrow, fortnight, today, etc. 

   4.   Start early. It is a known fact that children tend to hold on to lessons they received early on in their formative years.

   5.   Teach them to take breaks when they feel overwhelmed by a task.

   6.   Get them kids-friendly time management tools like alarm clocks/timers, calendars, diaries  

   7.   Don’t over labour them with tasks. Space out their tasks

   8.   Get them to play games that are time paced like puzzles, tetris, word puzzles, building block games, etc. Games that each level must be completed within a specific time. Just about any game will do as they can be tweaked to aid time management skills by timing them.

  9.   Also add activities like storytelling, book reading, and movies, which focus on time management.

10.   Teach them to order their tasks in order of priority and attend to them in that order.

11.   Teach them that planning ahead also helps them to manage time properly.

12.   Have a reward system for encouraging progress 

We live in a society where people have zero value for time and time management, which is the reason why people always turn up late for events and appointments, projects are not delivered promptly and consequently, productivity and efficiency are greatly reduced. Children need to start learning early how important time management is so that it will become a culture that they are accustomed to as they grow up. Like I always say these skills can be learned and improved upon.

Did you get value, leave a comment, suggestion, or question. Also, read the other posts on our blog about Executive functioning skills.

 

ORGANIZATION AS AN EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILL– An Important Life Skill Your Child Needs to Thrive.

 

ORGANIZATION AS AN EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILL– An Important Life Skill Your Child Needs to Thrive.

Who else agrees with me that walking into a space or environment where everything is well arranged and in its proper place, has a soothing effect? For some people, all it takes to rile them up is messing up their personal space. However as much as it is desirable to have a well-arranged space and lifestyle, not everyone can just keep things together.

The ability to be orderly and tidy is a learned skill known as organization and it is one of the skills that make up the executive functional skill. You can read our post on executive functional skills here.

 

What is Organization:

This involves the ability of a person to keep things orderly, neat, and tidy. This skill helps a child to excel in other skills like goal setting, task initiation, time management, and planning, and this ultimately boosts efficiency in all areas of the child’s life. Organizational skill is not only required of students, every other group of individual requires them too. A housewife cooking in her kitchen, A CEO running a company, A teacher teaching in a classroom: they all need organizational skills to achieve tasks promptly and effectively too.

 

I remember how I would always yell and complain that my kids were always late for school until I devised the strategy of getting them to bring out all that they would need for school, the night before and lay it out. This practice helped because the time usually spent looking for various items on school days was greatly reduced and lateness was curbed. This practice truly reflects the quote by Benjamin Franklin which says that “For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned”

A child who has acquired organizational skills will always stand out in any establishment and will most likely be chosen to function as team lead, project coordinator, etc.

 

The Importance of Organizational Skills:

a.       It promotes academic success. This is so because learning materials are organized, notes are properly taken and organized for easy assimilation, assignments are done promptly and academic performance is improved.

b.      Organizational skill ensures that the child does not lose his personal belongings, especially his school/learning items

c.       This skill is also important for social interaction as it helps children organize their thoughts, and communicate amongst their peers and even with older persons

d.      It helps children initiate and complete projects efficiently.

e.      It also promotes self-care, personal grooming, and independence in a child. A child with healthy organizational skills knows how to care for himself and doesn’t need to be told what to do all the time.

Children with low organizational skills struggle with poor academic performance, low self-esteem, and behavioural problems all of which can impact negatively the overall mental health of the child.

 

How Can You Boost Your Child’s Organizational skills?

1.       Planning helps kids stay organized. If a child is taught to lay out his clothes, shoes, and other accessories, which he will be using for school a day before, it helps him stay organized in the morning while getting set for school because he had already brought out everything he would be needing.

2.       Encourage your older children to make a list of activities they need to carry out and check it off when they have done it.

3.       Establish routines for the younger ones. Make a list of what they are supposed to do per time in the order in which it is to be done. A list of all the activities a child is supposed to engage in before they go to school or after they get back from school can help them stay organized. E.g. wake up in the morning by ---, make your bed, say your prayers, brush your teeth, take your bath, dress up. Comb your hair eat breakfast, pack your lunch, get your backpack, and get set for school. This orderly arrangement helps the child not to forget any task.

4.       Encourage them to use calendar planners to highlight important tasks. Teaching time management skills is also helpful to achieve organizational skills.

5.       Get backpacks with different pouches and let them know what each pouch should contain.

6.       Create space for keeping things.  E.g. ensure the child has and knows the  specified place  to keep his shoes, bags, personal stuff, etc. the designated spaces should be marked out,

7.       Lay emphasis on the child putting back toys and other items after use.

8.       Break down big tasks into smaller chunks.

9.       Encourage and guide them through regular organizing and arrangement of their stuff and workspace. It could be their bookshelf, their wardrobe, their shoe rack, or even their rooms generally.

10.   For their studies you can get them colour-coded notebooks so that different ideas and thoughts are jotted down in compartments and not mixed up.

Summarily, it doesn’t matter if your kids have executive functional skills or not, what is important is that it is a skill that can be learned, and as long as you are consistent in helping your kids learn it, trust me they will.

Did you get value, if you did please drop a comment, suggestion, or question, I would love to hear from you.

PLANNING AS AN EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILL: CONCLUDING A PROJECT EVEN BEFORE IT BEGINS .

PLANNING AS AN EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILL: CONCLUDING A PROJECT EVEN BEFORE IT BEGINS.  

 “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail”- Benjamin Franklin

 As we continue our discussion on the various skills that make up executive functioning skills, we will be looking at yet another important skill every child should have and that is planning skills. Planning is the aspect of executive functioning skill that involves one’s ability to carefully look at future goals and aspirations and set up a detailed working strategy to actualize those goals in order of highest priority. Little wonder a popular quote by Benjamin Franklin goes “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”

Planning as an executive functioning skill will make a child who knows that he would be required to sit for an exam at the end of the term, carefully draw up a study plan. His plan could include; Engaging in intensive reading for 2 hours every day, cutting down on screen time, and having a discussion session with either a friend or family member at a stipulated time and he will stick to the plans and achieve the goal of passing his exams in flying colours. A child with high-level planning skills can draft a detailed daily plan, where he itemizes all the activities he has for the day in order of importance and then sees them through

A child who has great planning skills will always get things done excellently well and even handle their businesses well

 

Importance of Planning:

a.       Planning helps the child to complete tasks accurately without omitting any aspect of the task

b.      It also helps the child carry out activities and tasks in order of importance

c.       It helps to prevent the child from getting overwhelmed especially with tasks that are a bit cumbersome

d.      Planning increases the chances for success in carrying out a goal, and success when it occurs repeatedly boosts the self-esteem of the child.

e.      It also improves academic performance. Every class assignment/problem given will require a working methodology to provide a solution, so the child’s ability to create a suitable working plan to solve the problem is the beginning of academic success.

f.        Planning also promotes effective and efficient decision-making. In the process of planning, one can identify what steps and processes will work favourably and what won’t so the child is better equipped to make a sound decision.

g.       Also having a detailed working plan on paper helps a child communicate his goals and expectations better.

 

How to Help Your Child Build on Planning as a Skill.

       1.       Encourage the child to plan an activity or event like a meal, a friend’s birthday party, a small family get-together, etc. Practice makes perfect.

       2.       Teach your kids how to order tasks in order of priority.

       3.       Baking is an activity that helps children develop their planning skills. To have a well-baked bun, the child has to plan all the steps involved in the baking process. Form getting the items required to measurement, to the actual preparation and then the baking proper.

       4.       Encourage your kids to mingle with their peers who have stronger planning skills.

       5.       Encourage journaling and the use of daily planners.

       6.       Also teach them how to use visual clues and diagrams in setting up a plan.

       7.       Games like Chess, Checkers, Monopoly, and Battleship board games help to improve planning skills.

       8.       Another amazing and interesting game is “Tower of Hanoi”- This is a mathematical game/puzzle which consists of 3 rods and discs in sequence. The discs are arranged in sequence on one stick and the goal is to move all the disks to form another tower without violating the sequence of arrangement. This video can help you understand the game better https://youtu.be/JqQFf775wZU. This game also improves problem-solving skills.

 Planning is a skill that is indispensable if one must succeed in life because as a popular quote goes “A goal without a plan is just a wish”. It is like seeing the end of a journey even before embarking on the journey.  As is the case with every other executive functioning skill, it can be learned by those who don’t have them, and for those who already have them, it can be improved upon. 

Did you get value, please don’t forget to drop a comment, question, or contribution. Also, read up on other posts on the other executive functioning skills in our blog.

 

ATTENTION AS AN EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING SKILL.

 

Attention as an Executive Functioning skill

“The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way”- Keanu Reeves.

Recently I had an urgent job I needed to deliver on and seeing that I was out of time, I enlisted the help of a teenager. I gave her a list of items and asked her to quickly get them for me from a shop. She got back and I realized that she bought the wrong things.  I had to send her back to get the correct items and I had to pay again because the shop had a “No return, No Refund” policy. Here I was trying to save time by sending her in the first place. I ended up spending more time and paying extra. I was livid. While I was processing what happened and asked her, she said her mind wasn’t quite put together. The summary of it is that she wasn’t paying attention. Attention is one of the skills that make up executive functioning skills and a lot of children struggle with attention deficit.

What is Attention?

Attention refers to a person’s ability to focus or concentrate on a particular task, assignment, or person for a required length of time while disregarding other activities within the same environment. To be able to successfully carry out a task, one needs a high level of focus and concentration to be able to mentally process the input (information received) and output (feedback given). A student requires attention and concentration skills while learning, both in and out of the classroom.

There are different types of attention:

       a.       Selective attention: Paying attention to a specific task or objective to the exclusion of every other activity going on within the environment. An example of this type of attention is a child paying attention to his class teacher teaching in the classroom while blocking out the distracting noise coming from the lawn mower that the school gardener is using to mow the lawn outside.

       b.      Divided attention: Paying attention to multiple tasks or objectives at the same time e.g. a child paying attention to the note his class teacher is dictating to him while also focusing on his book as he is copying ( here he is listening and writing). Another example could be a group of children making a presentation where they have to follow the prompts from both the conductor and maybe the instrumentalist to make their various moves. Here their attention will be focused on both the conductor and the instrumentalist if they must give a good presentation.

       c.       Alternating attention: Switching attention from one activity to another simultaneously. An example of this type of attention occurs when someone is cooking and washing. He checks the food for a while and at that time the attention is on the food then he leaves the food and goes to his washing and at that time his attention is on the washing until he has to go back to the food. He keeps switching from cooking to washing.

      d.      Sustained attention: the ability to pay attention to a task for a long period. An example of this is seen in an instance when a child spends so many hours playing a computer game or even watching television.

A lot of children struggle with maintaining focus and concentration on tasks and learning. There are a couple of factors that might play a major role in the inability of a child to maintain attention and focus, some of them include:

     1.       Intrinsic factors like :

Ø  Physical health: the physical well-being of the child also plays a role in his alertness.  A physically unwell child cannot fully be attentive for a required length of time.

Ø  Emotional health: the emotional state of mind of a person can affect his/her ability to be attentive and your child is no exception to this. A deeply depressed or angry child will most likely not pay attention in class.

Ø  Closely linked to emotional health is psychological health. A child who has undergone some form of trauma like rape, abuse (verbal, emotional, and sexual), deep loss, etc. is in a state of psychological trauma and this can impair the child’s ability to concentrate and focus.

      2.       Extrinsic factors like

a.       Nutrition

b.      Sleep: scientific research has proven that lack of or inadequate sleep causes reduced ability to engage in selective attention.

c.       State of the environment: the state of the environment in which a child is in at the time will greatly impact his ability to maintain attention for a length of time. An environment with lots of activities, noise, bright lights, etc. will be distracting for a child and thus make him unable to focus well

d.      Medication: Some medicines interfere with alertness and attention.

e.      Excessive screen time could also be a culprit. Not only does screen time affect brain memory capacity, but it also affects sleep routines and consequently impacts attention capacity. For more information on screen time and how much of it is appropriate for your child click here.

 

Importance of Attention.

       1.       It enhances problem-solving skills.

       2.       It promotes academic excellence.

       3.       It enhances comprehension and promotes task completion.

       4.       It helps the child focus on what is important.

       5.       It also helps a child to follow instructions.

 

How Can I Help My Child Build attention Skills?

      1.       Ensure your kids get adequate sleep.

      2.       Nutritional diets. Foods that are rich in energy sources and those that control blood sugar are ideal for children to help their attention, concentration, and memory. It is very important to cut down on sugar-rich diets. ( For more information on foods that your child needs for brain development, memory building, and concentration click here).

      3.       Teach and guide your child on how to minimize distraction. (e.g. don’t study with the Television turned on don’t study where you have a lot of colourful pictures pasted on the wall.)

      4.       Teach them different reading skills and guide them through the one that suits them well. Examples of some of these reading patterns include reading aloud, repetition, taking time to reflect/review what has been read, taking notes, mind mapping, using highlighters, etc.

      5.       Encourage them to take breaks when they are tired.

     6.       Encourage play, exercise, and other forms of physical activities. According to a scientific report in the journal “Harvard’s Men’s Watch – May 2013 issue” regular bodily exercises stimulate the production and release of chemicals that boost memory, mental alertness, and attention/concentration.

     7.       Create a designated workspace for your kids. A workspace that is devoid of distraction. This will aid concentration.

      8.       Games like puzzles, checkers, chess, matching games, building games/projects like building blocks and structural models, Legos, spot the difference, etc.

      9.       Other activities like riddles, cooking, painting, colouring, drawing, etc.

Two popular quotes that I find very insightful as far as attention is concerned are:

   Ø  “Attention is really a currency that you exchange to get something back – Awareness, Understanding or Connection”- Susan Pearse.

   Ø  “Pay attention and you will hear what life has to say”- Rasheed Ogunlaru (Life Coach-Speaker and Author)

Reflecting on these very thoughtful quotes we can conclude that building attention skills for your children should be a paramount task. Are you willing to take it on?

 

Did you get value, please drop a comment, suggestion, or question and I will be very happy to respond.

 

 

INHIBITORY /IMPULSE CONTROL: THE POINT WHERE REASONING PREVAILS OVER FEELINGS.

 

INHIBITORY /IMPULSE CONTROL: THE POINT WHERE REASONING PREVAILS OVER FEELINGS.

In our first post on executive functioning, we gave an overview of all the skills that make up executive functioning skills. In this post, we will focus on one of those skills and it is known as- the Impulse Control skill.

What Is Impulse Control?

Also known as inhibitory control or self-control, Impulse control is the ability to stay focused on a task, goal, or course, avoid distraction and prevent oneself from acting on impulse.

Have you ever heard of the marshmallow test? This test was carried out by Psychologist Walter Mischel to test for the correlation between inhibition/Impulse control and success in adult life.

 In this test, a group of 500 four-year-olds was studied for 30 years. At the age of four, they were kept in a room with a marshmallow placed before each of them. Walter told them that he was going out for a while and that they could eat the marshmallow before them however if they could wait for him and not eat the marshmallow until he got back, then they would get an extra Marshmallow each. Upon his return, he discovered that some of the children could wait, while others couldn’t. Those who waited got an extra marshmallow.

Later on, in their lives, Walter discovered that those children who exhibited impulse control i.e. waited for him to get back before eating their marshmallows turned out to be more successful than those who couldn’t. The result showed that they had higher SAT scores, better social skills (could manage relationships better), better physical health, were less likely to get involved in substance abuse and drug experimentation, got better jobs, and were better able to manage stress and pressure.

This follows that any child who has impulse control will be better equipped to say no to drugs and other social vices when friends and peer groups entice him. He is better able to delay gratification just so he can achieve a greater good. Today we see teenagers who don’t want to go through the grind and pay the price to achieve success in the future. They want to be gratified in the now and in the process make a complete mess of their future. A good grip on impulse control helps a child to make sound decisions.

Importance of Impulse Control.

     1.       Children with a good grip on impulse control tend to make better life decisions. They say “No” when they are supposed to say “No” and “Yes” when they are supposed to say “Yes”.

     2.       Have better relationships because they can restrain themselves from just acting the way they feel towards people, especially in the face of provocation.

     3.       They usually have better grades and a higher rate of academic success. It is impulse control that will empower a child to resist the urge to play computer games that he desires to play and read his books instead in preparation for an exam and consequently come out with flying colours.

     4.       It helps children to be more independent. This is so because a child you can trust to make the right choice is a child you can trust to lead himself and entrust responsibilities to.

     5.       It helps the child to achieve their set goals, both short and long-term goals.

     6.       It leads to greater emotional control and gives the child the ability to manage stress and emotions appropriately.

     7.       It empowers children to be better behaved, more considerate, and more thoughtful

 

Activities That Can Help Build Impulse Control in Children.

     1.       Impulse control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2: 22-23), so for a Christian, praying for the help of the Holy Spirit upon your kids is the perfect place to start.

     2.       Teach children actions and consequences. Spell out to them in clear terms what their inability to control their impulse will cost them. For instance, in the marshmallow test, those who couldn’t control their impulse lost out on the opportunity to get an extra one. You can also let them know that the inability to control the impulse to play when they should be studying, will result in failing grades and maybe a repetition of a class. Endeavor to teach regularly and continuously.

     3.       Teach and practice delayed gratification activities with them. You can tell them that they can have a delicacy of their choice now if they want but if they can wait till a day or two or even a week, then they can have that delicacy together with something else you know they will love to have too. Don’t force them to choose, just guide them to think of the options very well before deciding. Please make sure that as many who wait for the second option will receive the reward that was promised and praise them for holding on and have a chat with those who didn’t wait on the importance of holding forth. Relate it to other life experiences.

     4.       Set rules and boundaries: teach them what is allowed and what is not allowed and be consistent.

     5.       Model what you are teaching. If your child doesn’t see you controlling your impulse, the odds are that he will struggle with what you are teaching because children most likely do what they see you do rather than what they hear you say;

     6.       Use visual prompts like stick-it notes, drawings, or to-do lists to remind them of what task they are supposed to be focusing on, this will help to motivate impulse control.

     7.       Create and sing a song on self-control.  An example of an impulse control song is the popular song about “Simon the self-control seal” by Kyri Dermby –

“Stop, think and breathe and make the right choice 2x

     8.       Play impulse control games like:

a.       Simon says---- (In this game, a group of children is asked to listen to and obey the instructions of the instructor who is “Simon”.  So Simon calls out an instruction like “Simon says jump or walk or stop or sit etc. and they must do as Simon Says. You can even add a twist and just say “stand up” and anyone who stands up goes out of the game because he was supposed to respond to only instructions that came with “Simon says” accompanying it. Over time they will start controlling the impulse to act or move before hearing and processing Simon’s instruction

b.      Freeze game: Children can be asked to dance and while dancing you ask them to freeze, they are to immediately stop dancing and remain motionless until they hear the music start again and then they can start dancing again.  Other skills like listening skills and motor skills can also be learned here.

c.       Red light / Green light: children line up in a straight line and listen to an instructor who stands at the opposite end facing them. The instructor calls out “green light” and they are supposed to either walk or run toward him, while in motion he suddenly calls out “red light” and they are supposed to stop. Anyone who moves when he is supposed to stop goes back to the start line to start all over again and the first person to listen to the instruction, control his movement, and act accordingly to get to the finish line is declared the winner.

d.      Book or cup balancing game: Here children will balance a stack of books or a cup on their heads and then they are supposed to control their body movement as they walk to another designated point without the books or cup falling off from their head.

        Note some games/ activities can teach more than one skill. One activity can teach concentration and focus, planning, impulse control, motor skills, listening skills, etc. You can research other games or even invent yours, just be creative about it and let the children have fun while learning. These are some activities you can also use to replace screen time.

      9.       Role-play real-life events. Paint a scenario that your child might likely encounter where his impulse control will be tested, then act out the appropriate responses so that he has an idea of what to do and how to act in such situations.

    10.   Offer to be their accountability partner. Encourage them when they give in to their impulse and applaud/celebrate them when they can exhibit control over their emotion.

    11.   You can also encourage them to surround themselves with friends who exhibit a higher level of impulse control.

Finally, do more research on your own. There are so many other things you can do to help your child.

 

Conclusion

Impulse control when acquired by a child will play a great role in the child’s ability to make good life decisions independently so teach it

P:S; Please note that there is a much more severe form of impulsive behavior in children, this type is associated with children who have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). As much as these steps above will help such children, it is important to note that they are not enough. Such children will need the help of skilled professionals who will take them through therapy sessions and structure-based programs to help them get better.

 

COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY- THE TASK-SHIFTING ABILITY OF THE BRAIN

 

COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY- THE TASK-SHIFTING ABILITY OF THE BRAIN

“Be clear about your goals but be flexible about the process of achieving it” – Brian Tracy

In my post on Executive functioning Skills, their importance, and how you can help your child acquire them, we mentioned all the skills embedded in Executive functioning one of which is Cognitive flexibility. To find out all the other skills that make up executive functioning skills read it up here

What is Cognitive Flexibility?

Cognitive flexibility is also known as flexible thinking and as the name implies, it means the ability to be flexible in one’s thinking. The ability to be able to see something in many ways than one. Being able to think about multiple concepts at once and also being able to switch your thought process from one activity to another with ease. A child with a good mastery of cognitive flexibility will most likely end up as an employee with an exceptional ability to receive a new task, midway into another unrelated task and still deliver on both tasks with a high level of excellence and promptly too. This is also known as task-shifting ability.

As a student, the ability to tune thinking and mental processing to English language soon after going through a math class requires cognitive flexibility.  Also when a pupil is trying to solve a problem (e.g. math problem) his ability to think of multiple methods to arrive at the answer requires cognitive flexibility. For children who lack cognitive flexibility, once one approach doesn’t work, they give up because to them if it doesn’t work this way, then it can’t work any other way.

My mentor Wendy Ologe once told a story of her 10-year-old daughter who was asked to plan a meal. She wrote a list (utilizing her planning skills) and went to the market for shopping, while at the market she realized that the money she has can’t cover the cost of everything she needed to cook as some prices had increased. Rather than complain, get tensed, or go home without buying anything, she quickly engaged her cognitive thinking to explore other options through which she can still achieve her aim. She immediately reduced the budget for some items so that she can accommodate everything (utilizing her cognitive flexibility Skill) and made it back home in good time (utilizing her time management skill) to prepare lunch. I won’t forget to mention that her kitchen workspace was well organized plus the fact that after cooking, she set the table in an orderly manner with a high level of precision (utilizing her organizational skills) for a girl her age. It is worth noting that cooking skill is not a gender role meant only for girls, it is one singular activity that combines so many executive functioning skills in one place.

 All of the executive functioning skills can be learned and improved upon.

Someone described cognitive flexibility using water in two states: Solid state (Ice) and Liquid state (water). He pointed out the fact that when water is flowing in one direction and encounters an obstacle, it will immediately seek out another channel and continue its flow. While an ice block encountering an obstacle will stop moving and remain in one spot except it melts into the liquid (Flexible) state and then it can seek out another channel to flow through.

                  

Your kids must acquire these skills because the worth and relevance of a person are increased by the value he brings to any place where he finds himself.

 

Importance of Cognitive Flexibility

     1.       Cognitive Flexibility boosts problem-solving skills.

     2.       It also enhances the coordination of tasks.

     3.       It promotes critical, analytical, and creative thinking.

     4.       It helps one to look at issues from different perspectives and proffer well-thought-out strategies to solve problems.

     5.       It also empowers people to be innovative.

     6.       It helps to improve social and communication skills. Cognitive flexibility helps people to adapt to change easily, so when a child with a high level of cognitive flexibility gets into a new social circle he integrates easily with others and rarely ever experiences social awkwardness. He communicates easily too when any topic is introduced and can switch from one discussion to another.

     7.       Just like the other executive functioning skills, cognitive flexibility increases the chances of success. This skill is very important as it also improves mental health which helps to limit mental health problems like depression and even suicide. One very common reason why people commit suicide is the fact that they don’t believe that there is any hope for them to get out of whatever challenge they are going through. They are fixated on the problems they have and see no solution in sight, even when a solution is being offered to them. However cognitive flexibility helps one seek out and try other means of solving a problem and this outlook improves overall mental health.

 

What You Can Do to Improve Your Child’s Cognitive Flexibility.

     1.       Introduce age-appropriate mental puzzles and brain teasers to your children as early as possible.

     2.       Word games also come highly recommended. Examples of some word games include:

a.       20-Questions (In this game a child is nominated by a group of children to be the one asking the 20 questions. The questioner steps out of the room or away from the group and then the group picks an object in their surrounding space after which they ask the questioner to come back. He has to ask the group 20 questions and the answers to those questions will serve as clues that lead him to guess the chosen object correctly.)

b.      Scrabbles.

c.       Crossword puzzles.

     3.       Encourage them to engage in debates. Guide them to form teams and pick a topic, which the different teams/groups will argue for and against. This helps them understand that there are different perspectives to analyzing issues.

     4.       Fixing the Rubik’s Cube helps too. The Rubik’s cube is a 3-D combination puzzle that was invented in 1974 by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture- Erno Rubik. Among many other benefits, the Rubik’s Cube enhances cognitive flexibility, enhances the brain-hand-eye connection and reflexes, boosts memory power, and promotes problem-solving skills.

     5.       Teach your kids to believe and affirm first “that it can be done” and secondly “that there must be another way of doing it”. This mindset opens them up to the opportunity of seeking other processes for solving problems.

     6.       Reading widely helps to build cognitive flexibility because reading is a window to the world and a child who reads will be an adult who thinks.

     7.       Create a healthy lifestyle for your kids. Ensure they receive healthy brain nutrition, adequate rest and sleep, good exercise, etc.

     8.       Don’t let them get overworked and overwhelmed, encourage them to take breaks when they are tired and need to rest.

     9.       Teach them to avoid distraction and also help them learn how to pay attention and increase mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility is an attribute of a sound mind and a mentally alert brain. The brain requires a smooth flow of thought processes to perform optimally. So it is very important to introduce your children to activities that enhance cognitive flexibility, promote mental fluidity, and equip them with the ability to think, process information, consider all perspectives, try new and different approaches, and arrive at a result-oriented conclusion.

The absence of cognitive flexibility is known as rigid thinking and it causes fixative tendencies. Someone who lacks cognitive flexibility will most likely hold on to one belief on a particular issue even when evidence exists to prove that there are other possible angles to that issue, to them if it is not the way I see and believe it to be, then it can’t be any other way. 

So as a parent, it is very needful that children are equipped and empowered to be flexible in their cognitive thinking.

Did you gain value, I’ll love for you to drop a comment, suggestion, or question and I will be happy to respond. Don’t forget to read our post on executive functioning skills, to know more about the other skills that are embedded in executive functioning.