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A test of individual differences in cognitive flexibility was made by challenging 16 prelingually profoundly deaf children (CA = 11.33 yr.) and 16 hearing children (CA = 11.75 yr) with a short‐term memory task that required immediate recall of the temporal or spatial sequence in which four letters were presented. For each trial, letter presentation was arranged so that the temporal sequence was not correlated with the spatial sequence. On initial free‐response trials, all hearing children and seven deaf children showed a temporal orientation. The remaining nine deaf children showed a spatial orientation. On later trials, each child was instructed to take the orientation not originally taken. It was predicted from O'Connor & Hermelin (Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (1973) 25, 335‐343) that all groups would show substantial flexibility going from the initial to the challenge test, but only the hearing group actually showed the predicted recovery. Moreover, recall response times indicated processing differences between the two deaf groups, even when stimulus presentation parameters were individually adjusted to tap each child's optimum performance. It was concluded that individual differences in deaf children's initial orientations bear significantly upon differences in performance because of these children's relatively weak adaptive responses under challenging conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]