10 ways to build your child’s memory

Posted May 16, 2006

Having a great memory can help your child do better in school and on tests and get better grades. Here are 10 ways that you canuse to help your child improve his/her memory, including remembering facts, concepts, ideas, formulas and more:

Make certain your child really understands the concept or formula he/she is required to memorize. Understanding a subject means that he/she is halfway to remembering it. Encourage your child to ask questions in class when he/she is unsure of an idea or fact.
To remember something such as a name or math formula, exactly, word for word, get your child to make a rhyme or song from the information. Because humans are wired to remember music and its associations, setting facts to music can help children remember them.
If they aren’t already, help your child become interested in the subject they need to memorize. Check out books, stories, videos, movies or music on the subject. Or visit a museum or gallery. If your child gets interested in the material he/she is learning, he/she will surely remember it more easily.
Make sure the first thing that your child studies is the thing(s) he/she wants to remember the longest.
Whenever possible, encourage your child to use mental images to help him/her remember information. Suggest that your child close his/her eyes and get a picture in his/her mind of how the information looks in the textbook or notebook. Ask your child to visualize the notes on the page and see key words that he/she has underlined.
Have your child make his/her own examples and illustrations. When your child creates his/her own system for organization (using specific colors for headers, making numbered lists of facts to be memorized, putting information into charts and graphs, etc.) he or she will be more likely to remember the information.
Teach your child use a specific picture to represent an idea or concept. Another way is to create a mind map of various ideas and how they relate to one another.
Have your child make a list of key words to explain an idea or subject. Then, form associations among the items they need to memorize. The more distinct the associations, the easier they’ll be to remember.
Encourage your child to explain the information he/she is memorizing to a parent, sibling or friend without referring to notes. Make it a challenge to see how much he/she can remember. Then go back and study the information again and again to memorize it totally.
Your child should study notes by reading them through from start to finish, then focusing on the parts that he/she doesn’t know as completely.

Vera

my daughter is in grade 4 and is still 9 years old (her birthday is in December). I spend a lot of time with her studying and doing homework… sometimes to no prevail. She’s not focussed and continuosly seeks help and re-assurance. I’m beginning to think that I should let go a little and if that means she will fail tests, then so be it. I’m not sure if this hard love is the right one, but I am at the end of my rope (and patience)
Andrea

My son was diagnosed with mild dyslexia. I try to be patient but when he makes an error in reading or with his homework and I correct him he huffs and puffs. It seems he does not want my help. And I know he needs it. He fusses when I give him tricks to remembering how to write words. He gets angry when it is homework time. The pscychologist says homework comes before play but sometimes my son gets upset before he comes to the table. It becomes a battle for my husband and myself. HELP.
Administrator

You don’t mention the age of your son so some of my ideas may not be appropriate but feel free to amend as necessary. Number 1 – Establish a study schedule that the whole family has created and agreed to. Take a calendar and mark in all activities including school, special activities etc and then look at the time available to work on homework. Then, mark out specific study times and stick to them. Because your son has a learning disability, block out no more than 30 -45 minutes at a time for homework. Try for two or three blocks of time over an evening depending on his age. When the time is up, stop! Celebrate all the hard work that he did. Number 2 – Look at the amount of homework coming from school. Is it too much for him given his learning disability? If so, meet with the teacher and explain that he is working hard at home but to ask him to study more each night is not realistic. Ask the teacher what work can be done first and what work can be left undone. Number 3 – Don’t correct every single error when he is reading. When he reads out loud, let him self-correct when he is aware of errors but otherwise let him keep going. Good readers learn to go back and correct when passages lose their meaning when too many words don’t make sense. When he gets to the end of a passage, ask him to tell you what he has just read. If he understands what he has read, don’t sweat that he did not get each and every little word right. For kids with dyslexia, it is just too hard to get all the little words right. If he doesn’t understand what he has read, then he will begin to see the value of self-correction. Number 4 – Make sure you are all still playing. I know that school must come first but it is not healthy for kids to not have time to partake in leisure activities. If he has to work all day at school and then spend long hours at homework in the evening, you are creating a recipe for school burn out.
Administrator

Number 5 – Understand why he huffs and puffs and the kitchen table has become a battle ground. This is not about you or your husband – he is not rejecting you or your help even though it seems that way. Your son is struggling to maintain his confidence and self-esteem because schoolwork is so hard for him. He struggles all day at school and then comes home to more of the same. Think about how you would feel if you went to work all day and met with failure and then came home to more of the same. That’s what’s happening to your son. He wants to come home to a safe zone and have parents that will comfort him, play with him, tell him he’s a great kid, etc etc. And you want the same too. Unfortunately, you’ve all been forced to put that relationship aside as mom and dad become teachers to a young lad with learning difficulties. Working with kids with learning difficulties is hard for even the most experienced teachers. So, make time for fun, and when he huffs and puffs just remind him that he has twenty five minutes left to work and then he can relax. Also, avoid negatives and try to focus on as many positives as you can. Good try! You worked hard! Celebrate the smallest victories. Number 6 – Is it possible to have someone else work with him? This allows you to maintain your role as nurturer and cheerleader and lets someone else do the heavy stuff. A local learning disabilities association may have volunteers that can help out. Take care and best of luck.
elisabeth

my son is 5 and is in sk he knows all the abc but he is not reading yet we are workinhg on it but i am finding it difficult to teach him so as he to learn. could you please help?
randa

my child is in Garde II and her average in class is between C+ and B i spend a lot of time with her on her homeworks and i always want her to be the best lately i met with her teachers and they mentioned that she is being scared and hesitant to answer and participate in the classroom and they asked her about the reason and the answer was she doesn’t want to answer wrong then i might shout at her even in her exams sometimes she leaves empty spaces and when i ask her why she says that i was scared to write something wrong (so she will upset me and i might be shouting at her). so i beleive that all i was doing was for her benefit but it turned out to be that i’m making her lose her self confidence. can you please help me in finding out the best way to teach my child and let her be 100% confident and happy of what she is doing?
Emma – Oxford Learning Educator

Hi, Elisabeth, Thanks for your post. It is not unusual for parents to have a difficult time “teaching” their own children. After all, your son sees you as the caregiver, so it is hard for him to see you as the teacher too. Are you using the phonics approach to teach him his alphabet? In our Little Reader preschool program we have great success with this approach. Once the children have grasped the concept of the letter sounds they are then able to blend the sounds together to make words eg. fat, bat. I recommend focusing on one sound at a time and always the sound. The letter name will follow naturally. If you happen to be in an area where there is an Oxford Learning location close by please contact them and visit the Little Reader program. Location information is available at http://www.oxfordlearning.com/locations I am including an article about teaching children how to read. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting http://oxfordlearning.com/letstalk/phonics-reading/ I wish you the best with your son! If you need futher assistance please email us! Regards, Emma
Emma – Oxford Learning Educator

Good Morning, Randa, Thanks for your post. It is only natural that we want our children to try their best at school. It definitely sounds like your daughter has low self confidence when it comes to her academics. It is important that you speak to her about these issues. She needs to know that it is okay to have a wrong answer that is how we learn. Perhaps you can make a deal with her that you will try not to get frustrated with her if she tries to answer all of the questions as best she can. Every student learns differently, so it is hard for me to suggest the best way to “teach” your daugher. As mentioned in my previous post it is difficult for children to see you as the teacher when you are the parent. Perhaps you can speak to the teacher again and find out what he/she suggests as the best way to support your daughter in her learning. The grade 11 year is more than half way over and then she will be in to her final year, so it’s important that her confidence increases before it affects her marks. Visit or call your local Oxford Learning. We can perform an assessment that will tell us exactly how your daughter learns and will also pin point any skill gaps she may have. Then we can design a program that will fill any skill gaps, but also increase her confidence. http://www.oxfordlearning.com/locations I’m including an article related to helping children with their homework: http://www.oxfordlearning.com/make-the-homework-hour-happy-hour-top-10-tips/ If we can be of further help please email us! Best of Luck to you and your daughter! Emma
randa

Dear Emma thank you for answering back my question but i guess there was a misunderstanding my daughter is in Grade 2 she is 7 years old and not in grade 11 and the low self confidence that she is having now is because of me as per the teachers statement the reason is (every time she get a low grade i yell at her and i always say that we already studied this) therefore now in class and on her tests she is becoming scared to answer so she will not get a low grade and i will not yell at her. i really need help in how to give her the confidence in herself back, and how to make studing something nice and not as if it is a punishment we are doing. she is really a very kind hearted child so active and full of energy and i’ve always though my way will make her stronger (being tough in school matters) but unfortunalty this reflected in a negative way on her. awaiting your reply
Emma – Oxford Learning Educator

Hi again, Randa, Even though your daughter is in Grade 2 not in Grade 11 as you stated in your first post I still recommend the same strategies for her. She needs to know that it is okay to have a wrong answer that is how we learn. Perhaps you can make a deal with her that you will try not to get frustrated with her if she tries to answer all of the questions as best she can. Her lack of self-confidence is anxiety based. She doesn’t want to disappoint you. She is associating academic work with yelling. You can begin to increase her self-confidence by providing positive feedback when it comes to her academics. Maybe you can set up a homework routine. Allow her to have a snack when she comes home (maybe even watch TV for 1/2 hour) then do homework for 30 mins., then a little break… etc. If you have her do her homework at the kitchen table while you are preparing dinner then you will still be available for any help without being right on top of her. Have her do only two or three questions before you check them for her. Doing this will increase her independence and will also give you a chance to support her. It’s frustrating for students when they complete a whole page only to find out it’s all incorrect and they need to re-do the whole thing. That’s why we recommend breaking it down into manageable parts (2 or 3 questions). Again, if you are close to an Oxford Learning feel free to contact them. We can perform an assessment that will tell us exactly how your daughter learns and will also pin point any skill gaps she may have. Then we can design a program that will fill any skill gaps, but also increase her confidence. http://www.oxfordlearning.com/locations Just by doing these few things you will notice a world of difference! Emma
Donna

My son is 5 and in Kindergarten. We just received his report card, and he has 7 ’below kindergarten standards’ marks (2’s). The rest are average (3’s). He knows his ABC’s and 95% of the phonics, but he does not know his numbers well, and if I try to work with him, it is very frustrating, as he doesn’t seem to grasp any concepts that I try to teach him. When he finally gets it, we’ll repeat it many, many times to really let it sink in, then if I move on to another number or something and then go back to the previous number or concept, he looks at me like he’s never heard of it before (eg., learning the number ’10’ yesterday — we repeated it over and over and over, said it loud, quitely, sang it, etc., then I move on to 11 and 12, then went back to 10 — I held up the flash card, and he looked at it like he’d never seen it before (and it had only been 2 minutes max.!) I wonder if he has a learning disability, as this same example is carried over to a few different scenarios when trying to teach him something. Is there a way to test him to see if he has a learning disability, and perhaps he needs to learn these things differently than other children? ps: My 3-year-old will often jump in and give the correct answer when I’m trying to teach my 5-year-old! Please help, as I don’t know what to do, and I don’t want him to be the only one in the class who doesn’t know these basic concepts, as he’s very sensitive and will know that he’s falling behind.
P Gupta

My daughter is in standard I and 6 yr. old.As both of us are working I am not able to teach her properly at home.I encourage her to study by herself.So for that I go back to office after giving her some exercies.But as she is not able to create a calm environment at home while I am away. She cant study well with her full concentration.So at this time in exam she has brought A grade.How can I guide her so that she can pay full attention to her study and she can study by herself, As I dont have much time for helping her in studies.
RAIMA

my brother doesn’t care about his studies so do you think this ten tips will help him?
raghida april 42009

I have two sons a 10 year old and a 5 year old. The older one compleats his homework at a very slow rate and does them with out any motivation..he doesn’t even attempt to understand the lesson.. his main aim is to complete the assigment.On the other hand, my younger son has become very hyperactive in the past year and liying to us is part of his daily routeen.. moreover, when ever he is tld not to do something he does it.. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO??!!
Angela

raghida – take his toys away whenever he does something wrong. Once all of his toys are taken away reward him by gining 1 toy back when he does something to help you. Keep doing this until he gets the message.
Hayley

hi just wondering what the response was to Donna’s question