Bounded rationality is the idea that it is hard to be rational in the way you make decisions if you do not have enough information, time or mental capacity.

When this happens, you tend to choose the first option that you like. You choose a satisfactory option with the minimum requirements necessary to reach a particular goal, rather than the best option.

However, continuing to search for all solutions or possibilities will eventually back-fire. Too much information-seeking can delay or even stop you making any decisions. You simply need enough information to make your decision and reach your goal.

Choice-supportive bias is your tendency to attach positive features to the choice you have made and negative qualities to the options you did not chose. After making a choice, you are likely to continue believing that the option you chose was better than the one you rejected.

You see this in online groups where some parents see only the benefits in their chosen options and can be dismissive of the benefits of other options that other parents might choose.

You will choose familiar options. You will subconsciously reject unfamiliar options. This can prevent you from exploring all the options to find the one which best reaches your goal.

For example, hearing parents of a hard of hearing child might subconsciously reject the option of learning Auslan, as it might be quite foreign to them.

Different ways of presenting the same information often stirs up different emotions. This is used very successfully in advertising and marketing, and is called the framing effect.

Information can be framed in positive or negative ways to influence your decision-making.

For example, when you are looking at different options for a service provider, you might receive several brochures and links to websites. Brochures and websites about services are usually framed in a positive way. They put a positive spin on what is being provided, which can affect your emotions about the service and influence your decisions.

If you have put effort into something and it is not achieving the goals you had anticipated, you will tend to think that if you continue a bit longer or put in more effort, things will eventually turn around. This is known as sunk cost bias.

If a certain option is not working for your child, it is pointless to stick with that option just because of the time, money, energy and emotions you have already spent on that option.

Similarly, status quo bias occurs when you want to keep things as they are rather than change things, even if doing more of the same thing is irrational.

In both of these scenarios, it is helpful to start from the beginning and review the available options for your child’s future.