Transform, Pivot, Recognize, and Solve: Supporting Children’s Flexible Thinking
By Camellia Sanford-Dolly and Bryce Becker
Rockman et al Cooperative (REA) is excited to be partnering with Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) on a multiyear project funded by a Ready to Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education. Skillsvilleᵀᴹ is a suite of media resources for young children that promotes executive function skills and self-regulation strategies and aims to build children’s awareness and excitement around a wide variety of careers. This blog post is part of a series on what we have learned from our recent pilot study of the Skillsvilleᵀᴹ curriculum in family education programs.
Your child expected to take the bus to school with their friends this morning but was upset when you decided to drive them alone instead. They were excited to play at the park, but a surprise thunderstorm ruined the plan. They wanted to wear their favorite dino hoodie but couldn’t find it anywhere. Being able to pivot and adapt to changing situations can be challenging for young children but is an important skill for navigating everyday and academic life. In psychology, this skill is often referred to as cognitive flexibility (Buttleman & Karbach, 2017).
Cognitive flexibility is one of the executive function skills that is highlighted in the Skillsville Family Program, a four-session program for caregivers and their 5-to-8-year-old children, led by educators at local community organizations. During each session, families learn about and practice a new executive function skill through digital games, videos, and hands-on activities. In fall 2023, a pilot version of the program ran at three sites in the midwestern United States. Families spent one of the four sessions learning about cognitive flexibility, which is called the “Think Differently” skill within Skillsville, and engaging in related activities together. For example, they watched an episode of Skillsville, which will premiere in spring 2025, in which the characters had to think differently in order to solve a problem. They also played a hands-on game where they looked at stars and had to think differently in order to imagine and create new animal constellations within them.
When we asked families about their overall program experience, the Think Differently skill stood out to them because they felt it was most relevant to their lives together. On post-program surveys, the majority of caregivers (66%, n=29) reported that their children were talking about or using the Think Differently skill more now than they had before they participated in the program. In interviews, caregivers talked a lot about how their children were now applying the Think Differently skill in their everyday lives. Their responses highlighted several aspects of children’s growing ability to think differently, in particular: (1) transforming objects or ideas, (2) pivoting, (3) recognizing differing perspectives or approaches, and (4) problem-solving.
1. Transforming objects or ideas
Caregivers shared that after participating in Skillsville together, they noticed their children taking existing objects or ideas and intentionally changing them into something else. For example, one child adapted the lyrics to a song, while another created a home for his pet out of everyday objects:
He was singing a song and I thought he forgot the words, so I tried to correct him. He told me that he was thinking differently, and changed the words to match what was going on in his day. — Caregiver
He said that [he] was thinking differently because we have a pet snake and [he] had an empty tube, and [he] thought about how we could transform that into a hiding spot for her. — Caregiver
Here, families celebrated the creative ability to transform one thing into another by practicing flexible thinking.
2. Pivoting
Families noted that one of the things they struggle with is helping children pivot when a situation isn’t going how they thought it would. When plans change suddenly or an outcome isn’t what they expected, children and adults alike can often become overwhelmed by strong emotions and feel stuck. After the program, families shared that their children could now recognize times when they needed to think differently to change course, and that caregivers now had the language and tools to effectively remind their children to do so:
Think differently was the most favorite because we have used that skill out of anything else we learned. Because a lot of times we kind of, and not just Serena¹ but me as well and probably other people, like we kind of focus on a thing, and when it doesn’t turn out, it can be frustrating. So Serena will oftentimes pause as if the air is like a screen. We pause and she’s like, “Wait. Let me think differently.” And I’ve actually heard her say it like when she’s playing with neighbors in the backyard without prompting, which I thought was pretty cool. But also like at home, I’ll prompt her. I’m like, “Okay, let’s stop and think differently ’cause this isn’t working. Let’s figure out a different way.” — Caregiver
I think the thinking differently one stuck with me a lot because I’ve been using the wording almost exactly, like if our plans are changing or if it’s a hard time being flexible. We talk about that as well, about thinking differently. — Caregiver
Being able to find another option or new approach, or react calmly rather than out of frustration, is a useful tool for navigating life’s unexpected moments — whether you’re alone or with others.
3. Recognizing differing perspectives or approaches
Families also described how their children began recognizing that other people may have different points of view or ways of doing things than they did. Caregivers thought that the Skillsville Family Program normalized those differences and helped children see that having other perspectives or approaches is okay. The program also provided caregivers with the language to explain ways that children could apply these skills:
Like sometimes he’s stuck with “you can only do things one way and if you don’t do it this way, it’s incorrect.” He has a train table…It has little roads and stuff, and he is always riding cars, but sometimes his sister will have the car flying, and he is like, “Oh, cars don’t fly. You have to play with it like this.” And I was like, “No…she can use her imagination and she could play and there — it’s not a right or wrong way to use your imagination…” So I think that helped him…You don’t have to do things exactly like this or act like this. You can think out of the box. You can think differently. — Caregiver
Caregivers appreciated that the Think Differently skill could be practiced and discussed together at home. These conversations can even be expanded outside of the program during interactions with other family and friends.
4. Problem-solving
Families also appreciated that thinking differently has real-world applications across contexts, including play, work, and school. For example, during their interview, one family talked about using the skill while doing homework:
I find one of the reasons why I really like this class is because it gave Samuel a chance to listen to some of these concepts, ideas in general. And then I feel like it’s my responsibility as a parent to model and use that same type of skillset at home. So he had a little bit of issues with the homework that he was doing, and we used the actual terminology. So we talked about thinking differently and just breaking down that homework in a little slightly different way. But he loved the idea of saying, “Okay, let’s think differently like we practiced in Skillsville,” and so that really resonated with him. — Caregiver
Here, both the child and the adult recognized that thinking differently was a skill that wasn’t just relegated to a program that they did together, but rather that it could help them in the moment to figure out how to solve a problem.
Simple Ways to Support Flexible Thinking
So, how can caregivers support their children in practicing flexible thinking? For one, they can engage in conversations about the importance of the skill:
- Talking about different ways you can solve a problem
- Communicating openly and provide explanations when plans change
They can also provide tangible examples of when that skill can be used:
- Modeling ways to compromise and adapt when others want to play differently
- Pointing out when they’re using the skill in their own lives
- Reading a story where the characters demonstrate flexible thinking and talking about how it helped the characters
Finally, caregivers might consider leaning into children’s rich imaginations:
- Giving children agency to change the rules in a game or activity that they are doing together
- Encouraging creativity in making something new or adapting the techniques or materials used
As caregivers noticed these four aspects of flexible thinking growing in their children, they emphasized how pivotal it was for them to have a shared language to talk about what they were doing. By discussing and practicing these skills together, families can co-develop approaches for navigating everyday situations successfully.
The contents of this program were developed under the Ready to Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education (PR S295A200002) awarded to Twin Cities PBS. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
To learn more about Rockman et al Cooperative, visit rockman.com.
To find out more about the Skillsville project, visit: https://skillsville.org.
*All names are pseudonyms.
