Supporting Working Memory and Cognitive Flexibility

Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, learners will be able to:

1. Differentiate working memory and cognitive flexibility by identifying the cognitive demands associated with each.
2. Analyze preschool classroom observations to distinguish difficulties maintaining information from difficulties adapting to changed rules or expectations.
3. Interpret differences in children's performance across instructional conditions while considering alternative explanations for observed difficulties.
4. Select developmentally appropriate games and instructional supports that address working memory and cognitive flexibility.
5. Develop graduated instructional plans and identify measurable indicators of intervention effectiveness.

Reading Assignment

Assigned Resource:
Preparing Young Children for School
Institute of Education Sciences / What Works Clearinghouse (2022)

Required Pages: 17–22
Recommendation 2: Strengthen children's executive function skills using specific games and activities.

View the IES Practice Guide and Full PDF ↗

Detailed Reading Guide

Read pages 17–22 with particular attention to how changes in game structure alter the demands placed on working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and attention.

Page 17: Intentional Executive Function Games

Examine how structured games require children to remember rules, respond to cues, and control their actions. Identify the importance of explaining, modeling, and practicing games before expecting independent performance.

Consider the distinction between a child who does not remember a direction and a child who remembers it but cannot consistently implement it under competing demands.

Page 18: Game Examples and Cognitive Demands

Study Example 2.1, including Red Light, Purple Light, the Freeze Game, Drumbeats, and Which Way? Brain Builder.

Analyze the tasks involved in remembering stimulus-response relationships, stopping movements, and adjusting behavior in response to changing cues.

Page 19: Increasing Cognitive Complexity

Focus on the recommendation to increase game complexity once children demonstrate mastery of the initial rules.

Consider how additional instructions, changes in cues, reduced adult guidance, and more demanding response requirements can increase the need to retain information or shift behavior.

Page 20: Rule Switching and Changing Roles

Review Example 2.2, in which children initially follow one puppet's commands and ignore another puppet's commands. The teacher later reverses the rules.

Analyze why this activity requires more than remembering directions. Successful performance also requires suppressing a previously learned response and adopting a new rule.

Examine Example 2.3, in which children transition from following directions in Simon Says to serving as the leader. Consider the increased demands associated with changing roles.

Page 21: Integrating Executive Function Practice

Examine Example 2.4 and the opportunities to support executive function skills during outdoor play, literacy, mathematics, and arts and crafts.

Identify ways school psychologists can help teachers incorporate structured practice into ordinary classroom activities rather than relying exclusively on isolated exercises.

Page 22: Responding to Implementation Difficulties

Review the panel's guidance regarding children becoming confused when games are made more complex.

Focus on the practical decision to reduce difficulty, return to previously mastered rules, provide visual reminders, and introduce additional demands gradually.

1. Understanding Working Memory

Working memory is a limited-capacity cognitive system that enables a person to temporarily maintain and use information while performing a task. Unlike simple recall, working memory involves retaining information while simultaneously responding to ongoing demands.

In preschool settings, working memory contributes to following multistep directions, remembering classroom rules, maintaining task goals, and participating in activities requiring information to be held in mind.

Working Memory in Everyday Classroom Activities

Consider a teacher who tells a child: "Get your paper, choose a blue crayon, and draw a circle."

Completing this activity requires the child to retain the sequence while obtaining materials and producing the requested action. Each intervening step creates opportunities for relevant information to be lost or displaced.

A child who retrieves the paper and crayon but forgets the drawing instruction may have experienced difficulty maintaining the sequence. However, incomplete performance could also reflect language comprehension, distraction, motivation, or unfamiliarity with the requested task.

Common Indicators Worth Investigating

• Following one-step directions successfully but omitting parts of longer directions.
• Forgetting the order of actions in familiar classroom routines.
• Losing track of task requirements while obtaining or organizing materials.
• Needing repeated reminders during activities involving multiple rules.
• Demonstrating better performance when visual sequences or demonstrations remain available.

Reducing Unnecessary Memory Demands

When the instructional goal is learning a new concept rather than testing the ability to remember directions, reducing extraneous memory demands may improve accessibility.

Teachers can present shorter directions, pair verbal instructions with pictures, demonstrate actions, and provide repeated opportunities to practice.

The purpose is not to eliminate cognitive challenge permanently. Instead, appropriate scaffolding allows the child to experience success while developing greater independence.

2. Understanding Cognitive Flexibility

Cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to adjust attention, rules, strategies, or responses as task demands and circumstances change.

In preschool classrooms, cognitive flexibility contributes to moving between activities, adapting to revised expectations, changing problem-solving strategies, and responding appropriately when familiar routines are modified.

Example: Changing a Sorting Rule

A teacher asks children to sort blocks according to color. After children perform the task accurately, the teacher instructs them to sort the same blocks according to shape.

The child must now attend to a different property while reducing reliance on the previously successful strategy.

A child who continues sorting by color may be having difficulty shifting the response rule. However, the psychologist should also determine whether the new instruction was understood and retained.

Distinguishing Flexibility From Memory

The distinction becomes more informative when the child can explain the new rule but continues responding according to the previous rule.

In that circumstance, difficulty remembering the new instruction becomes a less sufficient explanation. Cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control become important hypotheses for further examination.

Supporting Flexible Responding

Cognitive flexibility can be supported by clearly signaling changes, practicing alternate responses, modeling new rules, and providing visual reminders.

The IES guide's puppet game and role-switching examples illustrate opportunities for children to practice adapting to changing expectations within familiar, structured activities.

3. Differentiating the Two Processes

Working memory and cognitive flexibility are distinguishable conceptually, but most classroom tasks require several executive function processes simultaneously.

Tasks That Require Both

Consider a preschool game in which children are initially instructed to clap when they see a red card and remain still when they see a blue card.

Once the rules are learned, the teacher reverses the response requirements.

Successful performance now requires:

1. Remembering which rule is currently in effect.
2. Recognizing the visual cue.
3. Suppressing the previously learned response.
4. Shifting to the newly required response.
5. Maintaining attention across repeated trials.

A child who makes errors during the reversal could be experiencing difficulty in any combination of these processes.

Using Task Modifications to Inform Interpretation

4. Translating the Reading Into Instruction

Recommendation 2 emphasizes intentionally designed games that provide practice with executive function skills.

The instructional value of these games depends on careful selection, explicit teaching, repeated practice, and developmentally appropriate changes in complexity.

Example: Dog and Cat Puppet Game

On page 20, the guide describes a game in which children first follow instructions from the dog puppet while ignoring instructions from the cat puppet.

Once children understand and practice the original rules, the teacher reverses which puppet's instructions should be followed.

This design provides an opportunity to practice maintaining the current rules while changing an established response pattern.

Example: Changing Roles in Simon Says

The guide also describes allowing children to move from following the leader's instructions to acting as the leader themselves.

This change creates demands involving planning, monitoring the responses of peers, generating instructions, and shifting between roles.

Some children may need modeled examples or structured choices before leading independently.

Examples Across the School Day

5. Interpreting Classroom Performance

School psychologists should interpret apparent executive function difficulties within the broader context of child development, instructional history, communication skills, environmental conditions, and functional participation.

Begin With Observable Behaviors

Descriptions such as "poor working memory" or "inflexible behavior" are interpretations rather than direct observations.

More useful descriptions specify the behavior and the conditions under which it occurs.

For example:

• Completes one-step directions independently but frequently omits the second action in a two-step sequence.
• Continues sorting according to the original rule after the teacher introduces a revised rule.
• Follows a changed rule successfully when the teacher provides a visual reminder.
• Needs repeated demonstrations before responding correctly to a new cue.

Analyze the Instructional Context

Before attributing difficulties to executive functioning, examine whether the child understands the instructions, possesses the required response skills, and has adequate opportunities to practice.

Also consider whether task performance changes as a function of language complexity, environmental distractions, sensory demands, or adult support.

Compare Supported and Independent Performance

A child who performs accurately with a visual sequence but struggles without one may benefit from external memory support.

A child who can explain two rules but has difficulty switching between them may benefit from more explicit transition cues, guided practice, and structured opportunities to shift responses.

Functional and Educational Relevance

Executive function assessment becomes more useful when linked to meaningful educational participation.

For example, the psychologist might investigate whether difficulty maintaining directions interferes with independent classroom routines or whether difficulty shifting rules affects transitions and participation in cooperative activities.

Understanding these relationships helps the team develop interventions that address observable educational needs instead of merely increasing performance on isolated tasks.

6. Planning Developmentally Appropriate Instruction

Effective intervention planning begins by identifying the targeted cognitive demand, establishing an accessible starting level, and defining what successful participation should look like.

Step 1: Establish Initial Competence

Begin with a task the child can understand and perform. Confirm that the relevant motor response, verbal direction, and game rules are accessible.

Step 2: Teach and Model the Rule

Provide clear instructions and demonstrate the expected response. Visual supports may reduce the need to remember verbal directions.

Step 3: Provide Repeated Practice

Allow children to practice the initial rule across multiple opportunities. Provide feedback that identifies successful strategies and helps children correct errors.

Step 4: Increase One Demand at a Time

After the child demonstrates adequate mastery, increase task complexity in a controlled manner.

For working memory, this might involve adding another step to a familiar sequence.

For cognitive flexibility, this might involve changing one previously learned cue-response rule.

Step 5: Monitor Performance and Engagement

Record whether the child follows the rule, how much assistance is required, and whether the child remains engaged.

If the child becomes confused or repeatedly unsuccessful, reduce task demands and provide additional support.

Step 6: Plan for Generalization

Connect practiced skills to everyday activities, including classroom transitions, multistep projects, group games, literacy tasks, and problem-solving routines.

7. Progress Monitoring and Educational Decision-Making

School psychologists can help educators move beyond broad judgments about executive functioning by identifying measurable behaviors, documenting instructional conditions, and examining responses to support.

Suggested Progress Indicators

• Percentage of correctly completed steps in multistep directions.
• Percentage of accurate responses after a rule change.
• Number or proportion of trials requiring adult prompting.
• Accuracy during independent practice compared with visually supported practice.
• Performance across different classroom activities requiring similar cognitive processes.

Interpreting Changes Over Time

Performance should be compared across equivalent task conditions whenever the purpose is to evaluate progress over time.

A child may demonstrate lower accuracy after a new rule is introduced, even though performance on the previously mastered activity remains strong.

This does not necessarily indicate regression. The task itself may have become more demanding.

To interpret progress, document changes in rule complexity, instruction length, adult support, and opportunities for practice.

Equity, Access, and Individual Differences

Children may encounter different barriers to executive function activities based on language comprehension, communication needs, developmental differences, sensory access, motor skills, or familiarity with classroom routines.

School psychologists should consider whether the assessment or intervention task creates unnecessary barriers unrelated to the targeted skill.

For example, a game requiring a rapid motor response may not provide a clear picture of cognitive flexibility for a child with significant motor coordination difficulties.

Adjusting the response method may make the targeted cognitive demand more accessible.

Lesson Synthesis

The central distinction explored in this lesson is that working memory concerns retaining and using information, whereas cognitive flexibility concerns adapting responses, rules, and strategies when circumstances change.

Although these functions can be described separately, the assigned reading demonstrates that preschool activities frequently require them to operate together.

Connecting the Reading to Cognitive Processes

The games described on pages 17–18 create opportunities for children to remember instructions, attend to signals, inhibit actions, and respond appropriately.

The progression toward more challenging rules on page 19 illustrates an important instructional principle: cognitive demands should increase after children establish competence with the initial activity.

The puppet and role-switching examples on page 20 emphasize that executive function instruction can involve changing well-established response patterns rather than simply remembering more information.

The classroom examples on page 21 demonstrate the potential to embed executive function practice into literacy, mathematics, outdoor play, and collaborative activities.

The implementation guidance on page 22 reinforces the importance of adjusting difficulty when children become confused, overwhelmed, or unable to participate successfully.

Implications for Assessment

For school psychologists, differentiating working memory and cognitive flexibility involves identifying the demands of the task and comparing performance across carefully selected conditions.

When a child struggles with lengthy instructions, the psychologist should investigate information load, language comprehension, attention, and the effects of visual support.

When a child understands a new rule but continues using a familiar response, flexibility and inhibitory control become important considerations.

In both situations, observed performance represents evidence to interpret rather than a direct diagnostic conclusion.

Implications for Intervention

Effective interventions should target the cognitive demands associated with participation difficulties while preserving access to instruction.

Working memory supports may include shorter directions, visual sequences, demonstrations, and opportunities to rehearse information.

Cognitive flexibility supports may include explicit transition cues, guided rule reversals, advance preparation, and structured practice with changing expectations.

When both processes are involved, teachers can reduce one demand while gradually strengthening the other. For example, visible rule reminders can reduce memory demands while children practice changing responses.

Implications for Consultation and Decision-Making

School psychologists can use these distinctions to support collaborative consultation with teachers and families.

Rather than recommending generic executive function activities, psychologists can help educators identify specific skill demands, select appropriately scaffolded instruction, and monitor meaningful educational outcomes.

This approach emphasizes the child's developing competence and the instructional conditions that support successful participation.

Key Concepts to Retain

1. Working memory supports maintaining and using information during ongoing activities.
2. Cognitive flexibility supports adapting to changed rules, responses, and expectations.
3. Preschool tasks frequently involve overlapping executive function processes.
4. Intentional games can provide structured practice when task demands are matched to children's skills.
5. Instructional complexity should increase gradually after mastery.
6. Assessment should examine task demands, alternative explanations, and responsiveness to instructional support.
7. Intervention outcomes should include meaningful classroom participation and independent functioning.

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