MEMORY TIPS & STRATEGIES
Memory has many components. This is an explanation of those components of
memory and ways you can recognize your child's strengths and weaknesses.
Understanding this will help you guide your child in the most effective way
to study.
We take in information through our senses. In a school setting, we
primarily use our ears (auditory) and eyes (visual). We also use feeling
and touch (tactile-kinesthetic) when we remember how to move parts of our
body-like the hand for writing, the foot for kicking a ball, or our mouth to
make a sound.
After information is taken in through one of the senses, it settles briefly
in short-term memory while we decide whether to file it or throw it away.
If we file it, it goes into long-term memory. We use active working memory
to hold all relevant information for a current activity together.
It is critical that children become active participants in improving their
abilities. They will need long term, patient guidance in understanding
their specific strengths and weaknesses and how to use them effectively.
They also need to realize that everyone has strengths and weaknesses-some
just show up more in the school setting. We need to keep in mind that
compensating for memory weaknesses take more effort and can be exhausting.
Consider strengths and weakness in the senses when deciding how to best
enter things into memory. You want to teach the child how to use his strong
senses as the main way to learn information by changing the way it was
presented if necessary. The other senses will become more supportive as
they are improved.
An example of a visual strength would be a child who remembers after limited
exposure where things are at the store, how to get around a park or complex,
and where the car is parked. Encourage them to pay attention and try to
remember and then see how well they can do. A child with an auditory memory
weakness might be well behaved but seldom follows through completely with
what they are told to do.
IMPROVING VISUAL AND AUDITORY MEMORY
Relate auditory memory to not only remembering words of a song, but how you
can actually hear the singer singing it in your head. I call this the "tape
recorder in your brain". They should practice being able to not only
remember what someone said, but be able to actually hear it. They can
further this with the use of a tape recorder. Reading their own notes into
a tape recorder and listening to them while getting ready for bed or school
reinforces this sense. (Listening right before bed is good because we
remember things better without other distractions before we go to sleep).
Making up jingles, poems, and silly sentences can be a helpful way for a
student to use auditory cues to help them remember.
Examples:
1. To spell GEOGRAPHY, learn this sentence-
"George eats old gray rats and paints houses yellow."
2. The first letters of the Great Lakes spells HOMES.
3. Roy G. Biv is spelled from the colors of the spectrum in order.
4. To drive a 4X4, you have to be 16.
5. Shy Anne (Cheyenne) lives in Wyoming and her cousin Helena lives in
Montana.
Visual memory is like a "camera in your brain". Students can practice
visualizing about vacations or parties. They can then begin to make up a
picture to help them remember things presented orally. They might actually
imagine themselves performing the task they have just been given. Drawing
pictures, making charts, and building models are ways visual skills can
support memory. Reviewing good notes also builds visual memory. Have them
close their eyes to picture what was written on the page. (This method can
also be used with spelling words.) Have them picture where you just wrote
the word or information on the board or a piece of paper. If you color code
or highlight tricky letters, draw a shape around words, or highlight key
words, they can learn to picture that information.
Using all senses at the same time focuses attention better because all
senses are being used (and there is no opportunity for attention to
wander.) By seeing, saying aloud, hearing, and feeling how it is to write
(finger write on table), the child is sending the information in through
several channels at the same time. Using large movements with both arms in
the air writing spelling words can help enter information and coordinate
knowledge between both sides of the brain.
