8 Tips to Boost Your Child's Working Memory

8 Tips to Boost Your Child's Working Memory

8 Tips to Boost Your Child's Working Memory

Memory is a critical part of establishing a solid foundation for your child's learning inside and outside the classroom. Having great memory has many advantages. Unfortunately, people are not born with this. Children and even adults need to work to obtain sharp memory skills continually.

True they say that practice makes perfect. In mastering memory, in fact, it's essential that your child works on this aspect regularly.

Improving working memory

Before anything else, effective memory has two components: 1) short-term memory and 2) long-term memory.

Short-term memory helps a child in processing and recalling new information thereby a skill that every individual uses to learn. This memory is then transferred to long-term memory.

Short-term memory may aid in solving a particular task. But when transferred to long-term memory, it will help develop a deeper understanding of what the task is all about. The child will be able to make sense of and draw meaning from any activity involving the same memory.

Further along, there are upshots to failing to build and improve memory. Struggling on this aspect may mean difficulties organizing and comprehending information and ultimately, the constant struggling inside the classroom.

There's a workaround. These tips may help in improving your child's short-term and long-term memory.

Boost your child's working memory

1) Exercise visualization skills

Before storytime, tell your kid the title of the story you are about to read to him or her. Encourage your child to create a picture in his or her mind. Visualizing will help in having a clear grasp of what is about to transpire or what had transpired upon hearing something. You may follow through with letting him or her draw the picture in his or her mind or describe it to you.

boost working memory exercise visualization skills

2) Encourage active reading

Have you seen your child encircle a word or phrase on his or her textbook? Have you heard your trying to read a word or phrase aloud? Or ask questions about what he or she is currently reading? That's how he or she keeps the information in mind long enough to recall or answer a question.

boost working memory encourage active reading

3) Help make connections

Forming associations between and among information that your child already processed can also help. Remember ROYGBIV? Teaching your kid about this will help him remember the order of the colors of a rainbow as well as whether green or violet is included in the rainbow or not. While at it, associations can lead to the discovery of new information that is not available before through comparing old and new memory. It's like creating mind maps which include different ideas and how these ideas relate to one another.

boost working memory help make connections

4) Make it multisensory

Processing new information can be made easier by integrating the senses – sight, hearing, and touch. Say the steps aloud but say them one at a time so your child can hear them. Or, write it down on the memo board for reference. Use real objects as examples when teaching about advanced concepts, keeping the information in mind long enough before he or she can actually use it.

boost working memory make it multisensory

5) Divide into chunks

Social security numbers have hyphens for a reason. And, that because it makes it easier to remember it instead of a long string of such. When dealing with multi-step activities, divide them into mini steps that your child can process rather than giving all the steps in one go. Reinforce written instructions with verbal cues so he or she can remember better. Visual imagery is vital to kids too. This is how you can better build comprehension.

boost working memory divide into chunks

6) Suggest visual games

Matching games help in enhancing visual memory. Using play cards also does the trick. First, your child needs to remember all the rules of the game. Second, he or she also needs to recognize the cards that have been played. Other suitable memory games are encircling all the words the in a magazine page within one minute, spotting differences between two almost identical pictures and describing an image after it has been removed from the pocket chart, for example.

boost working memory suggest visual games

7) Ask questions

Some classroom activities include pairing up with a classmate. The goal of these activities is to make sense of specific information and file it mentally. In this way also, the child can process the information right away instead of waiting for his or her turn. At home, you may play pretend as if your child is teaching you what he or she has learned in school. You can also encourage your child to speak up and recall what transpired by asking “How's school?” “What have you learned today?” “What did you eat during snack time? Did you like it?” and so on. These are memory hooks that allow your child to remember not just objects but also the experience.

boost working memory create rhymes, chants and songs

8) Create rhymes, chants, and songs

Recognizing patterns and remembering music are innate human abilities. Another way to process information is to organize it into a rhyme or chant. This helps in keeping the information longer as memory power is improved. Encourage your kid to come up with his or her own original chant or even poem to gauge the level of processing that he or she can commit to.

Use all these tips and tricks to help your child become a better learner in school and at home.

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