When you ask your 5-year old what he did at school today and he says that he forgot, it’s natural for you to be concerned about his memory.
Image Courtesy: step2direct.com.au
Memory is an intricate process and the brains of children of 6 to 8 years of age often automatically try to build various strategies to help them remember things.
Remembering further needs the ability to stock the information for a few seconds. This is called short-term memory.
Then the information is manipulated for several minutes which is known as active working memory.
Finally it’s manipulated for an extended time period which is called long-term memory.
For instance, while writing down words from the blackboard, kids first need to remember the sequence of letters and then they should write the words down without having to spend much time looking back at the board.
Several children help themselves by repeating the letters out loud or whispering the words under their breath. Later they’ll need to memorise the words for a spelling test.
The more chances your kid is given to work out her memory skills, the simpler will it be for her to manage the load of information in school.
Here are some tricks you can use to increase the memory of your kid.
1. Ask Details
Research has revealed that parents can have a long-term effect on memory development by asking several questions and particulars to their children about past situations.
For example, you can ask questions about how your child spent the day at school, every day. So, also, discuss with her about what happened in the visit to the park in the evening.
You can even buy toys online in Australia from Step2 Direct and ask what toys there were on the online stores. This being favourite topic of the kid, there are high chances that he’ll remember them.
Remember to fill in the details that she can’t recollect.
2. Try Memory Games
There are fun memory games you can play with your child. For example, start as “I am going to a picnic and I am taking…” and everyone in the family should be given a turn to add an item and also repeat those added previously.
Shop kids play kitchen from Step2 Direct and tell her to sort out utensils, play foods and other items by category. Now ask her which items she has placed in each of the categories.
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3. Apply Strategies
Find memory tricks to help your kid. For instance, when you’ll teach him left and right, tell him to hold both hands in the shape of L and explain how the hand with the forward-facing L is the left one.
To help her memorise how to read a word with two successive vowels, tell her, “When two vowels go on a walk, the first one does talk.”
4. Divide and Rule
Teach your kid the trick of breaking down tasks. Thus if he has to recall a short poem or a paragraph, teach him to break them into small parts and do the toughest parts first.
You’ll be pleased to see the progress of your child’s memory with these tricks and your child will be happy too.
