On Enhancing Memory Skills

By Jamilah Samian

Emma vividly recalls the time her eldest son, Brian, began preschool. “He was confident, loved school and the new friends he was making,” she says. “Although he was a little hesitant on his first day of school, by the third day it was evident that he was enjoying himself. He would even give me a flying kiss when I dropped him off each morning before I went to work.”

But that was a few years years ago. Brian is now in Primary Two and it worries Emma that he doesn’t seem to be as enthusiastic about school as he once was. “He fusses that there’s too much to learn,” she says. “Just a week ago, he reported that his teacher complained he was not paying attention in class and because of that, he could not understand how to do the math sums.”

It’s a common concern among parents. While preschool may involve more play and hence, less stress among children, once they step into primary school, it’s a different story. A typical day may include learning new words, new mathematical steps to comprehend, science, social studies and so on i.e. more on processing and storing different kinds of information. How does a child cope with so many facts to remember?

To begin with, an environment of fun enhances memory; both children and adults remember facts better when they are presented in a fun way. That is why children who are blessed with teachers who teach for the love of teaching and therefore make learning fun in class, stand a better chance to excel in school. However, regardless of the kind of teachers your child has, there are ways to help him improve his memory skills.

Memory is generally classified as sensory memory, short term memory and long term memory. Sensory memory is the initial process that helps us remember things for brief periods of time which barely goes beyond several seconds. Short term memory, also known as working memory, on average, helps us to remember seven items for up to about 30 seconds. Long term memory, in comparison, is about storing vast amounts of information for long periods of time.

By and large, parents want to know how children can transform short term memory into long term memory so they can remember facts better. It is quite natural for parents to wonder if a child is born with “bad memory” if he has difficulty to remember school lessons. However, experts assert that there is no such thing as good memory or bad memory; only trained or untrained memory. Unless your child had a major brain injury, the opportunity is always there for his memory skills to be enhanced. You can help him improve his memory skills with the following:

1. Recall past events. Jog your child’s memory of past events. For example, when you are in the car driving him to school and planning for the next family trip, talk about the last trip you had. Start with the broad picture. Where did you go? Where did you stay? Then, move on to the smaller picture. Remember the room we stayed in? Was it facing the beach? Or the garden? There was a patio, right? Do you remember what color it was? And oh yes, what about the palm tree? We did bury a flag there, didn’t we? Do you think someone has found it yet? Studies show that parents can boost memory development in children by training them to zoom on the details and specifics of past events. Browsing through photos of these memorable events might help, too.

2. Have fun with memory games. Take the time to play games with your child which requires him to concentrate and recall past words. The board game Taboo, for instance, needs players to remember what words they may not utter to their team while trying their best to provide clues for persons/characters/objects they are describing. Or, board games notwithstanding, a simple game in which your child has to recall the last word you uttered to construct a sentence will do. A good time to try this game is when you are stuck in a traffic jam!

3. Break it down into chewable bits. Children feel overwhelmed when they have to, say, memorize class plays that involve many lines in less than two weeks. Just as it is impossible to chew a platter of food all at once, it is preposterous to expect a child to digest so many facts at the same time. Divide the task into smaller bytes. Ten lines of play are far more manageable if tackled one line at a time. Not only does your child’s memory skills get sharpened, his self-confidence grows, too when he realizes that what seems to be an impossible task at the beginning is actually achievable if taken and chewed one step at a time.

4. Doodle it. Many of us, children included, remember facts as mental images instead of words. That is why children may remember better when facts are associated as symbols or doodles. The secret is to store vital information as pictures. For example, to help your child remember that herbivores love plants, you can draw some teeth munching some leaves next to the word “herbivores.”

5. Tell a story. It is definitely easier to remember facts when they are presented as a story because with a story, facts fall into place in a nice flow. For instance, to remember all nine planets in the solar system (Mars, Venus etc), you can arrange the first letter of each planet’s name this way: Man-eating Violets Eat Meat Just So Ugly Nymphs Ponder.

Finally, keep in mind that children by nature are voracious learners and their natural curiosity motivates them to learn. However, there is no one size-fits-all when in comes to improving memory skills. Keep trying and don’t rush your child. It may be some time before you find a way which he or she is most comfortable with. Last but not least, memory is less efficient when the brain is overstressed, so it’s better to try the methods above when your child is alert and ready to try something new.

Published in ParenThink magazine July 2007