The Impact of Cognitive Load on Engagement
When a child avoids an activity, disengages, or starts “acting silly” during a session, it would be easy to interpret this as “behavior”, controlling, avoidant, or otherwise. Then the blame isn’t on us, the therapist.
But, if we view this as a time to return our OT roots in activity analysis, we can often find a more truthful answer to what is at play.
Oftentimes, it’s cognitive overload.
Cognitive load refers to the total amount of mental effort required to complete a task. Every activity places demands on attention, working memory, processing speed, and organisation. When those demands exceed a child’s current capacity, cognitive overload occurs.
Importantly, this is not a fixed trait within the child. Cognitive capacity fluctuates across the day, across environments, and depending on the context of the task itself.
What Cognitive Overload Can Look Like
Cognitive overload is frequently misinterpreted because it doesn’t always present as obvious difficulty. Instead, you may observe:
Avoidance or refusal
“Silly” or off-task behaviour
Rushing or guessing responses
Frequent errors despite known ability
Needing repeated prompts
Losing track of steps
Becoming stuck quickly
Verbalising “this is too hard” or disengaging entirely
These behaviours are not necessarily indicators of inability. They are often indicators that the task demands exceed the child’s current processing capacity.
What Increases Cognitive Load in an Activity
Even activities that appear simple can become cognitively demanding when multiple elements are combined. Load increases when a task requires the child to:
Hold multiple steps in working memory
Process large amounts of visual or auditory information
Respond quickly or under time pressure
Shift attention between different elements
Inhibit impulses while completing a task
When these demands stack, participation becomes effortful and unsustainable.
A Practical Way to Assess Cognitive Load
Before presenting an activity, pause and ask:
How many things does the child need to remember?
How many elements do they need to track at once?
How much information are they required to process simultaneously?
Then consider:
If they lose track, can they recover independently?
Or do they rely on adult support to restart?
This shift, from evaluating performance to evaluating task demands, can significantly change how we interpret a child’s response.
How to Adjust Cognitive Load
Reducing cognitive load does not mean lowering expectations. It means adjusting the pathway to participation.
Consider:
Simplifying the number of steps presented at once
Reducing visual or auditory clutter
Slowing the pace or removing time pressure
Providing cues, structure, or reminders
Breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable parts
Externalise working memory demands (e.g. visual schedules, written steps, or models so the child doesn’t need to hold everything in mind)
Stabilise one variable while introducing another (e.g. keep materials familiar when introducing a new rule or concept)
Reduce the need for divided attention (e.g. present instructions separately from action, rather than requiring listening and doing simultaneously)
These adjustments allow the child to engage with the task using their available capacity, rather than becoming overwhelmed by it.
A Shift in Perspective
Through an occupational therapy lens, engagement is understood as the result of the dynamic relationship between the child, the task, and the environment.
When we apply activity analysis, we move away from asking: “Why isn’t the child doing this?”
And instead ask:
What are the demands of this activity?
Where is the breakdown occurring?
Is there a mismatch between the child’s current capacity and the task requirements?
More simply: “Is this task asking for too much at once?”
This shift allows us to move from interpreting behavior to analysing participation, and to make intentional adjustments that support engagement without changing the overall goal.
