How to improve working memory in child

How to Help Your Child With ADHD Improve Their Working Memory

Written by Kathleen Fordyce

One of the challenges for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is limitations with their working memory, or their ability to hold on to information long enough to use it. Working memory also impacts long-term memory, or how our brain stores information for the future. Weak working memory can make it harder for your child to pay attention, focus, remember and follow instructions, learn, and more.

Many young kids have trouble with working memory. But children with ADHD may also have problems in other cognitive, or thinking, areas including executive function, which helps us plan, prioritize, and do tasks. Those deficits, combined with difficulties with working memory, can present challenges.

Over the past few years, many new apps, websites, and computer games have been created to help children with ADHD improve their brain function, including their working memory. While some research shows they can help, researchers and doctors say there is inconclusive evidence on whether these computerized programs help children when it comes to using and improving their working memory in everyday life.

But research has shown that medication and practicing training techniques and strategies can help your child boost their working memory.

While you’re helping your child improve their working memory, it’s also important to teach them strategies that they can use at home and school to remember things, complete tasks, and function every day.

Here are some ways to help your child improve their working memory, as well as coping strategies to help be successful at school and home.

Play Memory and Card Games

Boost your child’s skills while having fun. Card games require your child to remember the rules, what cards they need, and what cards other players have used. Pick the game based on your kid’s current level of functioning.

Memory board games can also help your child practice holding on to information. Verbal license plate games are also great. Take turns reciting letters and numbers from license plates and repeating them back to each other. This can help them practice listening, remembering information, and using it to repeat back.

Let Your Child Teach You

A good way to help your child remember what they learn is to have them teach you. To be able to teach something, a person must first hold on to the information and be able to use the information to guide others. Teachers often use this technique in the classroom by pairing students together to help each other.

So, when your child is learning or practicing a new skill and getting the hang of it, have them teach it to you. It can be anything from how to do a math problem to how to dribble a basketball. They will get to practice key working memory skills and build confidence along the way, too.

Encourage Active Reading

Have your child take notes, underline passages, and talk about what they are reading. These active reading skills can help them absorb and remember details – both in the short and long term.

Build on Skills

As your child masters a new skill or becomes used to completing simple tasks, continue to add on to them. Studies have shown that children experience the most benefit with their working memory when they are challenged with new skills. Just be sure to increase demands slowly.

Repeat Information

Saying instructions and information more than once as your child is learning helps them become familiar with the information, digest it, and retain it. Repetition will be needed as your child is maturing and building their working memory over time.

Use Visuals

Pictures and lists can be very helpful for children with ADHD. You can use them in multiple ways, such as images to show the steps needed to complete a task or leave post-it notes around to remind them of tasks that need to be done.

If your child is struggling with remembering certain information – such as spelling of common words – posters or reference sheets can help them. If they forget tasks at home, create and laminate to-do lists with all the steps they need to complete.

Give Short Instructions

When giving your child multistep directions or information, break it down into smaller parts. This helps make sure that you are not overloading their working memory and that they can digest one piece of information at a time.

For example, when asking your child to get ready in the morning, you could give them two tasks at a time, and only give the next step once they’ve completed the first two. Or, if your child is writing an essay, help them break the assignment down into different steps such as brainstorming, collecting data and facts, writing an outline, completing a first draft, and so on.

Avoid Distractions

When your child is trying to do homework, learn a new task, or read, try to limit distractions, including noise and visuals like TVs and other screens.

Create Routines

One of the best ways to help children remember to complete tasks is to encourage behaviors to become habits. For example, you can have a morning routine that your child follows every day to make sure they are ready for school. You can also have their teacher create routines, such as having your child turn in their homework as soon as they enter the classroom.

Help Your Child Make Connections

Help your child remember tasks or steps by creating clever sayings (such as Roy G Biv to remember the colors of the rainbow) or songs to help them remember information.

Other Tips

Working memory is like a muscle – it takes time, consistency, and practice to make it stronger.

All children have different strengths and ways of learning, so try new things to find what works for your child. What works well for another child may not work as well for yours, and vice versa.

Encourage them to use to-do lists, planners, and notebooks to write down and store important information, so they don’t have to remember it all. Monitor your child’s progress and reactions to see what works best to help them.

Be patient: Improving working memory takes time. Don’t expect results overnight and be sure to celebrate your child’s small wins as this will motivate them to keep going.

How to Improve Working Memory in Kids

Does your child have a hard time keeping one bit of information in mind while doing something else? For example, you’re making spaghetti together, and your child’s in charge of the sauce. But your child leaves to answer a text and forgets to come back and stir. Working memory challenges can cause trouble with tasks like these.

Working memory refers to how we hold on to and work with information that short-term memory stores. (In the past, the term working memory was used interchangeably with short-term memory.) It’s part of a group of skills called executive function.

Kids use working memory all the time to learn. It’s needed for things like following multi-step directions or solving a math problem in your head. You can help your child improve working memory by building simple strategies into everyday life.

1. Work on visualization skills.

Encourage kids to create a picture in their mind of what they’ve just read or heard. For example, say you’ve asked your child to set the table for five people. Have your child imagine what the table should look like, and then draw it. As kids get better at visualizing, they can describe the image instead of drawing it.

2. Have your child teach you.

Being able to explain how to do something involves making sense of information and mentally filing it. Maybe your child is learning a skill, like how to dribble a basketball. Ask your child to teach you this skill. Teachers do something similar by pairing up students in class. This lets them start working with the information right away rather than waiting to be called on.

3. Try games that use visual memory.

There are lots of matching games that can help kids work on visual memory, like the classic game Concentration (or Memory). You can also do things like give kids a magazine page and ask them to circle all instances of the word the or the letter a. License plates can also be a lot of fun. Take turns reciting the letters and numbers on a license plate and then saying them backwards, too.

4. Play cards.

Simple card games like Crazy Eights, Uno, Go Fish, and War can improve working memory in two ways. Kids have to keep the rules of the game in mind. They also have to remember what cards they have and which ones other people have played.

5. Encourage active reading.

There’s a reason highlighters and sticky notes are so popular: Jotting down notes and underlining or highlighting text can help kids keep the information in mind long enough to answer questions about it. Talking out loud and asking questions about the reading material can also help with working memory. Active reading strategies like these can help with forming long-term memories, too.

6.

Chunk information into smaller bites.

Ever wonder why phone numbers and social security numbers have hyphens in them? Because it’s easier to remember a few small groups of numbers than it is to remember one long string of numbers. Keep this in mind when you need to give your child multi-step directions. Write them down or give them one at a time. You can also use graphic organizers to help break writing assignments into smaller pieces.

7. Make it multisensory.

Using multiple senses to process information can help with working memory and long-term memory. Write tasks down so your child can look at them. Say them out loud so your child can hear them. Walk through the house as you discuss the family chores your child needs to complete. Using multisensory strategies can help kids keep information in mind long enough to use it.

8. Help make connections.

Help your child form associations that connect different details and make them more memorable. One way is to grab your child’s interest with fun mnemonics. (For instance, the made-up name “Roy G. Biv” can help kids remember the order of the colors in the rainbow — red, orange, yellow, and so on.) Finding ways to connect information helps with forming and retrieving long-term memory. It also helps with working memory, which is what we use to hold and compare new and old memories.

Memory-boosting tricks and games are just some of the ways to help your child build executive functioning skills. And see how trouble with these skills can affect a child’s daily life.

Key takeaways

Teaching kids ways to visualize thoughts can help improve their working memory.
Card games and other fun activities can help build working memory.
Finding ways to connect information can help your child with long-term memory as well as working memory.

Methods for improving a child's memory

What can be done to improve children's memory?
This question interests many parents. He gets up especially sharply with the arrival of the baby in school, where it is required to memorize large amounts of information.

The exercises below are often used by kindergarten and elementary school teachers to develop all types of memory in children. Counselors at summer camps also often include tricks to improve the memory of children in a set of developmental activities. Practice with your child too.

"10 WORDS"

Read a list to the child, for example: morning, cow, pilot, skiing, tram, river, painting, ring, gardener, pencil. And then ask him to repeat. If a preschooler of 6-7 years old is able to reproduce 5-6 words, this is a wonderful indicator of short-term memory. Remind him of the words he forgot. And after about an hour, return to the exercise. Now let the child, without prompting, remember everything that he called. Long-term memory is considered very good if the baby remembered at least 7-8 words.

REPEAT SOUNDS

Invite him to close his eyes and keep them closed for a minute. Your task is to make a series of sounds: rustle a newspaper, knock a spoon against the wall of a cup, snap your fingers, ring a bell ... Ask the child to repeat the sounds you made in the order in which he heard them.

CICERO'S METHOD, OR EVERYTHING IN THEIR PLACE

It consists in mentally arranging the images that need to be remembered in a well-known space - for example, in one's own room.

Invite the child to memorize 10 words, for example: umbrella, dragonfly, sea, elephant, candy, garden, crow, pan, orange, spoon. And explain how all of the above should be “placed” in the room, so that later it can be easily retrieved from memory: “We will “hang” a large green umbrella on the door handle, we will increase the dragonfly to a gigantic size and “plant” it on a carpet hanging on the wall. Let the sea rage on the TV, the elephant (we will reduce it to the size of a matchbox) will walk under the canopy of a ficus growing on the windowsill. We will “place” a huge candy in a bright wrapper on the balcony - it is so large that it barely fits there. Blooming garden "break" on the floor. Let's put the crow on the chandelier.

As a result, in order to reproduce the chain of words later, you only have to restore the interior of your native home in your memory. Using this method, you need to follow the rule: it is better to increase small objects to large sizes, and reduce large ones (which we did with the elephant and dragonfly)

"10 PICTURES"

Take 10 pictures of various objects. Let the child look at them, and after 30 seconds name what they managed to remember. 6-7 pictures out of 10 is an excellent result for a 6-7 year old. Then show those pictures that he forgot about. And after an hour, ask to remember all the images. You can talk about excellent indicators of long-term memory if 7 or more pictures are named.

FIND 10 Differences

Good results for improving the memory of children can be brought by regularly performed tasks from the series “What has changed in the picture?”, “Find two identical objects”, etc. They can be easily found in educational books and children's magazines.

It is especially developed in those who have lost their sight. But it can and should be trained by everyone. We remember the sensations we experience when we touch something. Take several objects with different surfaces - wood and metal, warm and cold, smooth and rough. Invite the child to close his eyes, touch them, and then let him try to guess what he has in his hands

WRITING A STORY

Another way to remember as many words, pictures or objects as possible is to come up with a story with their participation, a coherent story, where each of the elements is assigned a role. Suppose a child has a row of cards laid out in front of a child, which depicts a cat, a book, an orange, a month, a bed, a mouse, a hat, etc. The story of the baby may be as follows: “The cat was reading a book on one of the pages of which an orange was drawn. Evening came, a month appeared in the sky. The cat wanted to sleep, she went to her bed and fell asleep. In her dream she saw a mouse in a hat.

Performing this exercise, you must take into account that the words must be linked together in order. And one more thing: the more incredible and funny the story turned out, the more likely it is that the child will reproduce all the given words.

MIRACULOUS TRANSFORMATIONS

Do you remember the cartoon about the plasticine crow that turned into a cow, a dog, a janitor and two ostriches - good and evil? The mnemonic technique that will be discussed is based on the same principle. Name the first word and ask the child to mentally “turn” it into something. An object or creature can grow ears, paws, a tail ... In his imagination, the baby is allowed to change its shape, size, color in every possible way, just as if he were creating different figures from a large lump of plasticine.

For example, the first word is "pencil". Suddenly it begins to stretch, becomes soft, flexible, very thin. Then it twists, folds - and now we have a ball of threads in front of us, from which needles begin to grow. The ball comes to life and turns into a hedgehog. Depending on age, from 10 to 20 miraculous transformations can be performed, after which the young wizard will have to remember the whole series of words: pencil, ball, hedgehog, etc. If everyone is easily named, it is necessary to complicate the task - make the next chain 3 longer 4 elements.

BTW

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a phenomenal auditory memory. As a 14-year-old teenager, he somehow ended up in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, where beautiful organ music sounded, the notes of which were kept secret. Arriving home, the young musician wrote down the work he heard from memory. And as it turned out later, he did not make a single mistake!

And the visual memory of the French artist Gustave Dore was also amazing - the painter could easily write an exact copy of the picture he had seen only once. This type of memory directly depends on our observation and ability to concentrate. Special exercises will also help develop such valuable qualities.0007

8 Sure Ways to Boost Your Working Memory

Does your child find it hard to keep a piece of information in their head while doing something else? For example, you cook spaghetti together and your child is in charge of the sauce, but he walks away to reply to the message and forgets to come back and keep stirring. Working memory problems can interfere with many daily tasks.

Working memory is responsible for processing information that is stored in short-term memory (responsible only for storing information). In the past, the terms "working memory" and "short-term memory" have been used interchangeably.

Working memory is part of the executive skills group.

Children constantly use working memory in the learning process. It is needed to follow complex instructions and solve mathematical problems in your mind.

Incorporating these 8 simple strategies into your daily life will help your child improve their working memory.

1. Work on visualization skills.

Encourage the children to mentally visualize what they have just read or heard. For example, suppose you asked a child to set a table for five people. Ask the child to imagine what the set table should look like and draw it. As children learn to visualize, they will learn to describe what they see in words without drawing.

2. Learn from your child.

The ability to explain how to do something involves understanding information and presenting it mentally. Perhaps your child is learning a new skill, like hitting a tennis ball. Ask your child to teach you this skill. Teachers do something similar by pairing students up in the classroom. This allows students to immediately start working with information, instead of waiting for the teacher to give them personal attention.

3. Play games with your child that use visual memory.

There are many games that help with visual memory, such as games where you have to match or match pictures. You can also give your child a journal and ask them to circle each word “what” or each letter “a” that occurs. You can even play with car license plates! Take turns saying the letters and numbers on the numbers, ask the child to close his eyes and repeat them in reverse order.

4. Try card games.

Simple card games like Uno or Akulina (Queen of Spades) can train working memory in two ways. Children must keep the rules of the game in mind. They also need to remember which cards they have and which cards have already been used.

5. Encourage active reading.

There's a reason markers and sticky notes are so popular: sketching notes and underlining or highlighting text can help kids keep information in mind long enough to answer questions about it. Speaking out loud and asking questions about what you have read can also help develop working memory. Such active reading tasks also help in the formation of long-term memory.

6. Break information into smaller pieces.

Have you ever wondered why phone numbers and social security numbers are written with hyphens? Because it's easier to remember several small groups of numbers than it is to remember one big string. Keep this in mind when you need to give your child complex tasks. Write them down in order, or give them out as you go, one at a time. Teach your child to break tasks into several parts, do it together until he learns to divide tasks on his own.

7. Use multiple senses.

Using multiple senses to process information will help with both working and long-term memory. Write down the tasks so that the child can see them. Say them out loud so that the child can hear them, and if possible ask him to write them down. Walk around the house with your child, discussing household chores that he needs to do. By using several of the child's senses, you will help him remember information for a long time.

8. Teach associations

Help your child form associations related to the various details of the task, this will make them more memorable. One way is to get your child interested in entertaining mnemonics. (For example, the phrase “every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits” can help children remember the order of the colors in the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, etc.). Finding ways to associate with information helps to retain and compare new and old memories. This develops working memory, and at the same time forms and restores long-term memory.

Memory games are just one way to develop your child's executive functions.

If these strategies have not been enough to develop your child's working memory, they may need special help.

Fast ForWord neurological training is aimed at the rapid development of memory, attention and other cognitive functions of the child.

These activities are exciting for the child - they are made in the form of computer games. But, despite the game form, this is a real job for the child - during these classes there is an intensive training of the brain areas responsible for the development of executive functions. Thus, thanks to Fast ForWord, the neurological causes of problems with executive functions are eliminated.

Find out more about this innovative technique!

Find out how executive function problems can affect your child's daily life.