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The ability to remember things well is necessary for success at school. Improve your child’s memory skills with these tips.
Your child’s memory is something that develops gradually over time. Certain things need to be remembered for a short period of time, like that Mommy asked me to fetch the red face cloth. Other things need to be remembered for a long time, for instance that ”a” is for apple. Both types of memory are important building blocks for learning.
From birth, your child’s brain is developing strategies that will help him recall information and remember things. You can help this process along in a very practical way. Here goes:
1 Play card games that are aimed at memory development, like Memory Cards. Nearly all toy shops will sell them, and they aren’t expensive.
2 Pack out a variety of random objects on a tray. Let your child study them for a while, and then ask him to look away. Remove one object and hide it. Ask her to look again and tell you which object is missing. Make the game more and more difficult by adding more objects, by changing the position of the objects when you remove one and also by letting her look for a shorter period. Remember, though, you want her to enjoy the game and experience success, so don’t make it too difficult.
3 Play memory games in the car. Say: “Grandma went to the shops to buy milk.” Your child must repeat your sentence and add an item. “Grandma went to the shops to buy milk and bread.” Then you repeat the sentence adding another item, and so on and so on. See how long the list can get before one of you forgets something.
4 When you are playing with beads or blocks, concentrate on repeating patterns of colours or shapes. Pack out a pattern, let her have a look, and see if she can repeat it without looking again.
5 When you pop out to the shops, ask her to help you remember your shopping list.
6 Every evening, ask your child if she can remember what she had for breakfast, what was in her lunchbox and if she can remember what she had for lunch.
7 Teach her how to visualise. Before children can learn to write, they form concepts through images. When you hear the word ”crayon”, what you see in your mind’s eye is the object itself and not the word as it is written. Encourage your child to visualise things before she acts.
8 Teach her about meta memory, the ability to verbalise how you remember something. You ”talk” through the thing that you want to remember to make sure it sticks, for example the pattern of the beads you are threading. You repeat out loud: “One blue one, then a red, and then a yellow. The red one is hiding between the blue and the yellow.” By stating things out loud, it becomes easier to remember them.
9 Good listening skills are part of a good memory. Ask your child to listen to you very closely, and then draw what you have described. Begin with a list of three animals, for instance. If she finds this easy, make the list longer and longer, and more complex. 10 Children learn by listening, seeing and moving. Use all three to help her remember things. Show her an object, say the name and ask her to clap or stomp her feet to the rhythm of the word you are saying.
11 Ask her about things that happened the day before, or the week before, or even the previous summer. The more she challenges her mind to recall past events, the more practice the brain gets in recalling.
12 Teach her associations. If she has to follow orders or a routine, you can make it rhyme or use alliteration. “It is time for bath, brush, book and bed.” Emphasise the ”b” sound.
13 Teach her how to play chess. It is one of the best board games for memory development.
14 Start from an early age to teach your child how to keep his surroundings neat and tidy. Show him how to tidy – children aren’t born knowing this. When things are always stored away in the same place, you eventually don’t have to remember where they are – you just know where they are. ●