Author: Laura Schembri

Carrington
Infant School
Helping your child with memory skills

What is Working Memory?
Working Memory is the ability to store information temporarily for immediate recall for a short time.
This is important when children are trying to remember a story, complete maths word problems, or follow instructions with several parts such as following
directions.
We have two kinds of working memory: auditory memory and visual-spatial memory.
Auditory memory records what we’re hearing, while visual-spatial memory captures what we’re seeing.
Effective working memory is key to learning.

Memory Strategies
Here are some strategies and tips you can use with your children to help them learn and remember important information:
Review and Repeat
The more you repeat information, the more likely it is that you will remember it. It also helps you remember new information if you review it along with information you already know.
Say It, Write It
Involving multiple senses (e.g., seeing, hearing, touching, doing) helps you learn and remember information by giving you different ways for your brain to get the information, as well as by repeating the information.
Personalize It
Children are more likely to remember information if it relates to them. If they can relate it to something they already know and have experienced, they are more likely to remember it.
Rhymes and Songs
Rhythm, rhyme, and music can help us remember information. For example, many children know that "In fourteen hundred ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." because it has rhythm and it rhymes.

Prediction
If children are actively involved in learning, they are more likely to remember what is being taught. One way to involve children in learning is through prediction. Ask children what they know about a topic and what they would like to learn.
Chunk It
Chunking is a way of learning information by breaking it up into related pieces. Telephone numbers are often learned through chunking, by grouping the numbers into sets of three or four.
Acronyms
Acronyms can help children remember information they’ve learned by using the first letter from a group of words to make a new word. For example, because
Big
Elephants
Cant
Always
Use
Small
Exits

Acrostics
Acrostics use the first letter of words to make a saying. Acrostics are especially useful when you have to remember information in a specific order. For example, you can remember how to spell "rhythm" by using the acrostic "Rhythm helps your two hips move."
Stress, Sleep, and Brain Overload
It is more difficult to remember information when we are stressed-out, tired, or have overloaded our brains with information. Children should get plenty of sleep and should take study breaks before they reach the point of overload when learning a lot of new information.
Tell a Story
Stories allow us to create a picture in our minds that is easy to remember later. Children can make up a story using the information that needs to be remembered.

Working Memory and Paying Attention
The part of the brain responsible for working memory is also responsible for focus and concentration. Working memory skills help children pay attention to what they need to remember. Two examples are recalling facts from a story and following multi-step directions. Children use working memory to remember the sequence of events in the story and important details. With multi-step directions, children may remember the first or last direction but not the directions in between.
Tip: Play Cards and Games - Simple card games like Crazy Eights, Uno, and Go Fish can improve working memory in two ways: the child has to remember the cards he has, as well as keep the rules of the game in mind at the same time. Games such as Simon Says can also improve the skill of following directions.
Working Memory and Learning to Read
Working memory is responsible for many of the skills children use to learn to read. Auditory (hearing) working memory helps children remember the sounds letters make as they sound out new words. Visual (seeing) working memory helps children remember what those words look and sound like. When these skills are working effectively, children will become more fluent readers.
Tip: Suggest games that use visual memory - Playing memory matching card games can help children work on visual memory. Other activities include using a magazine page and asking the child to circle all instances of a specific word in one minute. You can also use flash cards with words printed on them. Have the child take a moment and look at several word cards, and then turn them over and ask the child to recall the words printed on the cards.

Working Memory and Accessing Information
Unlike short-term memory, working memory isn’t stored for later use but accessed immediately—even while the addition of relevant information is taking place. Children with weak working memory skills have difficulty grabbing and holding on to complex, incoming information.
Tip: Work on visualization skills. - Encourage your child to practice creating a picture in his mind of what he just read or heard. For example, if you’ve told him to set the table for five people, ask him to make a mental picture of what the table should look like. Then, have him draw that picture. As he gets better at visualizing, he can describe the image to you instead of drawing it.
Working Memory and Remembering Instructions
To perform an activity, children rely on both incoming information and information stored in working memory. This can make it challenging to follow multi-step directions. Children with weak working memory skills have difficulty keeping in mind what comes next, while they’re doing what comes now.
Tip: Have your child teach you. Being able to explain how to do something involves making sense of information and mentally filing it. If your child is learning a skill, ask him to teach it to you or repeat the directions of the task. This gives the child an opportunity to practice the skill of remembering a sequence of steps while explaining each step, one at a time.

Make
memory games
FUN!