Helping Your Child Remember Better

There is no mystery involved in training your child to have a good memory and for his brain to remember more efficiently.  There are two very effective ways of training your child’s memory and to improve his or her memory.

1.         The auditory recall method

2.         The visual recall method

You can find out which is more suitable for your child or you can use both together to help improve your child’s memory.

According to Professor John Yuille of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the best way to remember something is to recall the information almost immediately.  “By storing away facts and then rapidly retrieving them, you open up more efficient pathways in the mind”.  With this in mind, you can help your child keep a daily personal journal.  Have him record the events of the day.  If you feel he is already burdened by homework, you can have discussions with him and encourage him to “teach” you what he has learnt.  For example, you can ask him what he learned in math class today and gently encourage him to become more specific.  For instance, you can ask, “Fractions? What are they?  It sounds really interesting.  Can you show me how it is done?”  Then stay with him while he explains fractions to you and works it out.  The next day he may tell his friends, “My mom is real dumb.  She does not know what fractions are!”  It is a small price to pay.

A friend I know has her daughter jot down notes about all subjects.  She might say, “What did they teach you in geography today?”  “About Antarctica.”  You might reply “Antarctica? How do you spell that?  Write it down and let me see it.”  The child then writes it down and before you know it, a full conversation about Antarctica follows, with the daughter offering information about the weather there, its importance and so on.  By recalling what she has learnt, the daughter is unknowingly committing it to memory.  Also, by writing it down, the child is able to organize the information, and enhance the brain’s power to retain information.

This method is very important in improving your child’s recall ability, for example in seeing the letters that spell Antarctica.  With both sight and sound working within his brain, his memory is already being trained to operate efficiently.

I can recall my history teacher, Mrs Johnson with great affection and respect.  Until she arrived, learning history was a drag.  She introduced an innovative and interesting method that greatly enhanced our ability to remember dates.  On the blackboard, she would draw a winding path.  It would be narrow at he top and wind its way down to the bottom, getting wider and wider.  It made the students feel that a path beginning miles and miles away came closer and closer until it reached them.  Then she drew horizontal lines inside the path and on each line, she wrote an important date and event.  She wrote all the dates from top to bottom, in chronological order.  Every student drew this winding pathway in his notebook, even though initially there was much apprehension and confusion.  Soon however, they settled down, happily realizing that remembering dates had become less of a bore and more of a pleasure.

Mrs Johnson not only gave a fresh new way to remember dates, but cleverly used the visual as well.  For example, a date like 1776 would be visualized by the students as being at the beginning of a path, with the word “Declaration of Independence”. This made it easier to remember.  Mrs Johnson’s Path of Dates was effective because;

1.            Students could remember facts better when they were presented in an organized chronological manner.

2.         The path helped link the date with the event visually.  During exams, students could remember where the date was on the path and the event written next to it was recalled with ease.

3.         The path was an easy reference and  helped the students to remember which event came before or after one another.  Thus events could be linked to add meaning to the factual information.

4.         The path saved the students from trying to memorize a dry list of dates.  This more imaginative way of presenting dates motivated them to learn.

5.         The path was a ready reference, dates at a glance.  It made the learning process effortless, and therefore easy.

6.         By drawing the path each time, the student taught himself.  Research has shown that the best way to learn is to teach.

Mrs Johnson’s path of knowledge can be used for all subjects.  It can help the brain to “peg” each topic and absorb facts effectively and easily.  By using this method, along with the auditory and visual recall methods, you can help your child train his memory and improve it to its fullest potential.  A trained memory is a vital link between all the other abilities that are the hallmarks of a developing genius.