Is memorization something that your grade schooler is having issues with? Here are ways on how to increase memory power in students.
In this article, you’ll read:
- Why is memorization so hard?
- How to increase memory power in students
Your grade schooler was doing well in school until memorization came in. From being a toddler or preschooler with such great memory (remembering your promises in every detail). Your child is having trouble remembering the terms needed in his subject, getting it mixed up with other words in the topic.
Why is my child having trouble memorizing?
How did your child go from having such a terrific memory to struggling with memorization?
Unless he was diagnosed with a learning disability, the possible explanation is that your child’s brain is doing what it is programed to do—store information for maximum memory efficiency.
Judy Willis M.D., Me. D., a board-certified neurologist in Santa Barbara, California, and a tenured educator with extensive exposure to neuroimaging, brain-mapping studies, and research, tries to explain it in a way that parents would understand.
According to her article in Psychology Today, the brain prunes away unused or barely used circuits to conserve the energy it takes to maintain them and favors building and strengthening the most used circuits. This pruning process is called neuroplasticity.
Information is memorized by rote repetition. For example, memorizing before a test, even though it may result in successful test grades initially, is unlikely to construct into long-term, durable memory.
Unwanted memories go to the dump
If you’ve seen the animated film Inside Out, it explains in a nutshell how memories work. Memories that the child frequently access are stored in the long-term memory storage.
While those that may have been vital before but not lately, things like phone numbers or piano lessons, are being thrown into the memory dump by the “mind workers” and is soon forgotten.
As Riley’s imaginary friend Bing Bong says, “When Riley doesn’t care about memories, they fade.”
Willis said that children must continuously activate those memories and build on their understanding for them to be retained and converted into durable, long-term memories they can retrieve efficiently for subsequent tests, topics, and application to future topics.
In a post published by Psychology Today, Dr. Willis broke down 10 ways in which parents and educators can help to improve a child’s memory. Her experience as a classroom teacher and neurologist allows her to make connections between the research and strategies that are “NEURO-LOGICAL.”
How to increase memory power in students
How to improve memory and concentration while studying? Check out these expert-approved ways to improve your child’s memory:
1. Destress
“Stress causes the brain intake systems to send information into the Reactive brain (automatic-fight, flight, freeze) and prevents information flow through to the Reflective higher thinking, conscious brain (prefrontal cortex) where long-term memory is constructed,” says Willis.
Her suggestion is to reduce stress and establish a fun, stimulating, and enjoyable activity before homework or study time.
Does this mean that making the learning environment fun and conducive can actually help the students learn and retain more important concepts? According to Dr. Willis, yes.
The idea is that the brain will make more positive associations with study/homework time, and since stress is removed from the equation, the experience will open up the brain networks that lead to memory storage.
Stress can make it more difficult to retain information, but if you work to destress the learning process, your child’s memory will most likely improve.
2. Grab attention
“Memorable events make long-term memories,” Willis claims.
The trick here is to learn what your child finds most interesting in their studies and cater to their likes. Have you noticed that your child can remember lessons from her favorite subjects better than subjects she doesn’t like?
“Curiosity opens up the brain’s sensory intake filter so when the topic comes up in class or in reading it will grab her attention,” she adds.
So make the lesson more interesting to your child so that she will naturally be curious to retain the information and learn more about it, reinforcing the neurons that will convert them into long-term memory.
3. Color
Color can have a huge impact on how easily your kids learn, retain, or remember information. Willis explains,
“The brain only lets in a small part of the billions of bits of sensory information available every second. A filter in the low (unconscious, automatic, animal-like) brain decides what gets in. Color is something that gets through this filter especially well.”
So how can you take advantage of this technique? Have your children use colored pens color code notes or words to emphasize high importance, the expert suggests. This will help them easily recall information based on a visual cue.
4. Novelty
Do you remember when you were a student yourself, your favorite teacher would let you sing a song with the terms you need to memorize? And for some insane reason, it’s ingrained into your brain regardless if it was already a couple of decades ago.
A boring experience, no matter what the context or subject matter, is typically something that is easily forgotten. Willis claims that making something a bit more of a novelty experience will help kids to remember and take notice.
“Use video clips from the internet, put on a funny hat, put a scarf on the dog, light a candle) right before your child begins to study. His alerting system will be more open to processing and remember information that comes in after a novel experience,” she suggests.
5. Personal meaning
“Children must care enough about information or consider it personally important, for it to go through the brain filters and be stored as memory. Use your child’s interests to connect her to the material,” says Dr. Willis.
Basically, if a child isn’t interested in a subject, they’ll be less likely to connect and learn. Willis suggests making a story as a cue or reference for your child.
“Stories are great ways to remember new things because you child’s brain grew up hearing stories and the pattern for remembering stories is strong in her brain,” she claims.
If you’ve seen the movie Mean Girls, for some reason, the heroine remembered the topic that was brought up in the Math contest because she remembered exactly what was happening around her when she acquired the information. “That was the week Aaron got his haircut.”
Using stories, music or even sensory play can help the child retain the information she learned in her long-term memory.
6. Relational memories
According to Willis,
“The brain keeps information in short-term memory for less than a minute unless it connects with prior knowledge.”
In other words, if you want to raise your children’s retention and overall memory, you’ll need to relate new lessons to old ones.
“Activate your child’s prior knowledge by reminding him of things you’ve done as a family or that he’s learned in other subjects that relates to the new information,” the neurologist/teacher suggests.
7. Patterning
The human brain is naturally inclined to seek out, create, and recognize patterns. Use this to their advantage!
“When your children recognize relationships between new and prior knowledge their brains can link the new information with a category of existing knowledge for long-term storage,” Willis states.
“Charts, mnemonics, listing similarities/differences, and making analogies build long-term memory patterns,” she adds.
8. Mental manipulation for long-term memory
What this means is that your children need to utilize the new information they’re gaining. If they don’t put it to use, it will be more difficult for them to store learned information in their long-term memory.
“Your children can write summaries of new information in their own words,” the doctor claims. “To make these even more personally meaningful the summaries can be in forms that suit their learning style preferences including sketches, skits, songs, dances, comic strips, or drawings.”
READ MORE:
The Life-long Impact of Brain Development in a Child’s First 5 Years
10 Delicious snacks for kids that improve their memory
3 tips for helping your child in online learning: Tips from a long-time homeschooler
9. Practice makes permanent
To put it accurately, practice makes progress and then practice makes permanent.
As with the last entry, it’s important to understand that practicing and reviewing the learned skills or lessons will vastly improve stored memory. This is why worksheets or seatwork are essential to help your child retain the information and apply it to practice.
“When a memory has been recalled often, this repeated neural circuit activation makes the memory stronger,”
says Dr. Willis. She claims that recalling a memory over and over again is “like exercising a muscle,” hence the term muscle memory.
10. “Syn-naps”
“Neurotransmitters, brain transport proteins, needed for memory construction and attention are depleted after as little as ten minutes of doing the same activity,” Dr. Willis claims.
Her personal remedy for this temporary drop in brain productivity is what she calls a “syn-nap”.
“Syn-naps are brain-breaks where you help your child change the learning activity to let her brain chemicals replenish,” she claims.
After a much-needed syn-nap, your child’s mind will be replenished and sharp!
As you guide your child to activate and connect multiple areas of his brain with a variety of sensory experiences. You’ll help him generate a more expansive storage network for remembering long after the first test.
The more they learn and expand their knowledge of a certain subject, they will feel the joy of success and understanding that goes beyond a simple test.
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