Improving your child’s Memory skills

Thursday 2nd February 2012

Lorna McSparron

Catriona Sargent

Aims of today’s workshop..

To begin to understand the terms ‘working memory’, long term memory, and short term memory’

To begin to understand how we can assess our child’s memory skills.

To understand the impact of memory difficulties on your child’s learning.

To explore a range of ideas which can help your child to cope with his / her memory difficulties.

What do we understand by the term ‘Memory’?

Short Term memory: the storage of information for a matter of seconds without having to manipulate it.

Long term memory: permanent storage of knowledge in memory stores located in various parts of the brain

Working memory: the retention of information in short term storage while processing incoming information and retrieving information from long term storage.

Assessing memory skills

Number span: eg… repeating 3 /4 / 5 digits in sequence (short term memory) / 3+ digits to repeat backwards (working memory) (telephone numbers).

Observation techniques1. Incomplete recall of a sentence / poem / tables etc..2. Failure to follow instructions3. Losing their train of thought (eg.. Child raising hand to

tell teacher information & then forgetting what he / she was going to say!)

4. Task abandonment Accurate assessment can only be completed by an

Educational Psychologist. SALT assessment can also provide us with some detailed information.

Memory difficulties can impact on… Organisation Attention span. Writing Spelling (auditory & visual / long term / short

term) Learning letter names and sounds. Reading comprehension / learning sight

vocabulary. Learning number bonds / tables, and basic

numeracy skills. Daily living

How to improve your memory (child / adult)

Don’t skimp on exercise or sleep Make time for friends and fun Keep stress in check Bulk up on brain-boosting foods Give your brain a workout Use mnemonics / visual images /

sensory strategies

Helping your child with personal organisation..

‘To be organised we must be able to carry round, in our heads, a list of what we have to do or what we need throughout the day / for the task’

Schoolbag should have sections to aid the organisation of books and materials.

Using file dividers, coloured folders for different subjects, and colour coded books / labels.

Daily visual timetable. Diary / calendar. Equipment checklist Use post-its

Helping with poor attention skills… Keep instructions short and clear, using concise

language. Ensure that the child has good eye contact with

you, and use his / her name in the instruction. Give instructions throughout the task. Allow ‘thinking time’ for the child to actually

process the instruction and / or get the child to repeat the instruction back to you.

Encourage the child to ask for help / more time to do / complete the task.

Try to help your child to become independent in some tasks gradually

Helping with writing issues….

Try to avoid the need for the child to copy out large amounts of work from a book / board (photocopy / scribe).

Allow for alternative methods of recording eg.. Diagrams, mind-maps, dictaphone, word processing, story planners.

Difficulties with reading comprehension…

The dyslexic child can often have to work so hard at decoding words that he / she loses the meaning of the text.

Punctuation in reading is often ignored. The child does not ‘engage’ with the text (no reaction to it

/ no expression used).To help we should… Use the cloze procedure / sentence completion type

comprehension tasks. Photocopy the text and use a highlighter pen to identify

key points. Discuss films / tv programs that you and your child watch

together

Developing visual memory skillsChildren with visual memory difficulties often struggle to: Draw scenes / images from memory Learn basic letter symbols Develop a sight vocabulary Copy from the board Activities to develop this skill include: Playing ‘Kim’s game’ Memory walk Multi-sensory activities for letter symbols / key words. Key word programme Looking at photographs / pictures and talking. Jigsaws Pattern building / sequences (puzzle books) Cars and number plates game

Helping with numeracy difficulties…

Use of Numicon shapes / cuisinere rods (consistent colour used for each number).

Times table raps. Using ‘base ten’ materials. Number lines, multiplication grids,

memory cards.

Recommended websites from our Educational Psychologist…

www.thekidzpage.com/freekidsgames/memorygames.htm

www.ababasoft.com/kids/mosquito www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk www.learning-works.org.uk www.eyecanlearn.com http://www.helpguide.org/life/

improving_memory.htm