Executive functions are crucial in goal setting, attention management, impulse control, and effective problem-solving. These functions, including inhibition, working memory and planning, are fundamental skills for academic and social success.
Turning Challenges into Opportunities with Cognitive Flexibility
Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adapt to new, changing, or unexpected situations and to modify one’s behavior in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information, or errors.
This skill is highly beneficial in the learning process as it allows individuals to:
- Adapt to changes in instructions, a common situation in a dynamic school environment;
- Solve problems by considering different strategies and adjusting as they go;
- Tolerate change and find creative alternatives;
- Better understand others’ perspectives and consider solutions that may not be their own.
Cognitive flexibility enables individuals to navigate a complex and changing environment, a skill that is useful throughout their personal and professional lives. Whether it’s adjusting to unexpected weather, adapting to a technical problem, or finding an alternative to a changed situation, cognitive flexibility is called upon daily.
Developing the Art of Mental Flexibility
Since cognitive flexibility is valuable in the learning journey, it is recommended to develop this skill from a young age, considering that the maturation of this executive function ends around the age of 20.
Developing this skill involves activities that allow learners to:
- Stimulate their creativity by imagining a variety of solutions;
- Consider multiple options;
- Adapt quickly to dynamic changes;
- Practice collaborative decision-making.
To do this, educators wishing to develop young people’s cognitive flexibility can stimulate their creativity through role-playing, and implement a variety of games where participants must find solutions or modify the rules during gameplay to encourage quick decision-making. Finally, collaborative tasks are also a good way to promote cognitive flexibility.
Interactive Games: Where Fun Meets Adaptation
Lü allows educators to develop their students’ executive functions, including cognitive flexibility, in a fun and educational way.
First, the dance games offered by Lü are a great way to develop students’ cognitive flexibility. However, they are not the only ones.
With Dojo, students must perform physical exercises by adapting to diverse movements, which pushes them to change movements to complete their warm-up or training sequence quickly.
The Twïns application stimulates flexible thinking by combining speed and association. Thus, students are invited to react quickly to respond to the different associations proposed during the game. The game evolves by integrating the reading of simple words, which requires continuous adaptation on the part of the players.
Wäk, on the other hand, confronts students with very fast mathematical and associative challenges and encourages them to adjust their strategy in the face of wrong answers. They can thus develop their ability to adapt and manage errors.
In conclusion, cognitive flexibility is a real asset in a constantly evolving world and it is worth developing this skill in young people from a young age. Thanks to innovative tools like Lü, creating engaging and immersive activities that develop these fundamental skills is now possible. Together, let’s turn challenges into opportunities and equip young people to succeed in a world of perpetual change.
