A Strategy for Flexible Thinking

“I am not going to rewrite that assignment. These suggestions for edits are stupid. I like my ideas better.” This may be what you hear from a student who is feeling stuck in an inflexible thinking pattern, which can often be triggered by receiving feedback or constructive criticism. Throughout a school day, students are provided continuously with feedback, both positive and negative, from adults and peers. Some students can accept that feedback and integrate it into their decision-making, and others become reactionary or inflexible. However, accepting feedback is a critical part of the learning process and is also an important collaborative skill. Explicitly teaching and supporting students to develop flexible thinking skills provides an important tool for their executive functioning toolbox.

Learning occurs through receiving and, ideally, utilizing feedback. In a classroom setting, feedback may consist of a teacher asking for an assignment to be edited or revised, a behavioral redirection, or an expectation being set. Positive feedback is essential because it communicates to students that they are on the right track academically and behaviorally. However, it’s necessary for teachers to be able to communicate feedback with students when change or redirection is needed. When students hear a request for work to be done differently, it becomes necessary for them to take a different perspective and apply a strategy to a skill that may be challenging for them, which requires flexible thinking skills.

The Importance of Executive Functioning Skills

Executive functioning skills allow students to shift focus, understand different points of view, and regulate emotions while starting and finishing a task. For students with executive functioning challenges, they may need support in responding to and utilizing feedback. This support can be achieved by involving the student in the feedback process, asking them if they would like to see or hear the revisions needed, and asking them to help create a plan for utilizing the suggestions.

We have all experienced what inflexible thinking looks like in the classroom, and it can spiral into power struggles and emotional dysregulation very quickly. In many cases, students who struggle with emotional regulation also have difficulty with flexible thinking and executive functioning skills. Additionally, if a student has executive functioning deficits, they may be more likely to experience difficulty with perspective taking and flexible thinking.

Flexible thinking skills are necessary for students to be able to do the following:

• Manage situations in which they hear the word “no”
• Adapt to change
• Resolve conflicts
• Persevere when learning new skills

Use Language to Help Students Identify Their Mindset

The strategy of “Speed Bumps, Detours, and Parking Spaces” teaches students how to recognize inflexible, or stuck, thinking and shift their mindset to a more flexible place. The strategy includes explicitly teaching this language to students and asking them to generate examples.

Speed bumps: These occur when students need to slow down and think through a problem. For example, students may encounter a speed bump if they are working on a challenging new math problem and their frustration blocks their ability to access the skills that they have.

Detours: When students need to change their plan due to a circumstance and identify new choices, they’ll take a detour. For example, a student wrote an essay about the wrong topic, and the teacher asks the student to come up with an idea that fits the criteria for the assignment.

Parking spaces: These describe inflexible thinking because we feel that we cannot move forward and need time to emotionally regulate. For example, a student had a really difficult morning and is having trouble starting their school day due to being angry and stressed. They are stuck in a parking space and need some time to regulate their emotions before moving forward.

When flexible thinking is required, visualizing the concepts of a speed bump, detour, or parking lot and saying phrases associated with each one can be done as a classroom strategy or used individually with students. This strategy integrates self-regulation, decision-making, and communication skills, so it also provides an opportunity for students to practice and strengthen their executive functioning skills.

The following phrases describe the different mindsets as students work through challenges:

• Speed bump: “I need to slow down and think through a problem, so my frustration doesn’t block my progress.”
• Detour: “I need to change my plan and identify a new course.”
• Parking space: “I feel stuck in my thinking, and I need a break to calm down before I can problem-solve.”

Brainstorm Scenarios and Model the Concept for Students

To teach this strategy, first focus on using the language and asking students to brainstorm (on paper) potential examples of speed bumps, detours, and parking spaces that might happen throughout the day. Next to each brainstorm, have students list a few strategies for moving forward.

A visual of this strategy can also be kept in an area where students take a break, or you can provide them to students as an individual tool. Another helpful way to integrate this strategy into a classroom setting is for adults to model the language.

For example, if the copier breaks and worksheets aren’t available, the teacher might say, “We’ve got a detour on our hands! Our reading worksheets aren’t available due to the copier being broken. Does anyone have any ideas for a detour to our plan?” Students may suggest using whiteboards, doing the activity through the projector, or verbally completing the questions. This type of modeling helps students be a part of the flexible thinking process, and eventually they may participate in that process for a challenge that arises for them in the future.

Speed bumps, detours, and parking spaces are normal parts of a school day and are opportunities for building students’ resilience and executive functioning skills when they’re faced with a challenge. Once students understand and embrace the idea that growth occurs when they are outside of their comfort zone, then flexible thinking becomes a strategy that helps them face challenges with confidence and view feedback as a useful tool instead of criticism.