
Helping Your Children Develop Memory Skills
By Andrew Loh
Teaching your children how to enhance memory skills is an art.
Different children have different memory skills and abilities to
remember things. A number of children will have very low memory
powers and such children need extra help from both teachers and
parents. However, making your children remember things out of sheer
memory power could be very exciting, challenging and thrilling. Here
are some well-known approaches that can help to improve your
children's memory skills:
Make it Simple and Easy for your Children to Memorize
It is impossible for your children to hold too many things at a
time. Hence, whatever you teach must be short and simple with no
complexities. Children find it very difficult to memorize very long
instructions.
Example: Difficult to understand and remember sentence is "If
you complete reading those two pages and get ready for tomorrow's
exam, I will allow you to watch your favorite TV cartoon show"
Very simple and direct instruction could is "When you complete
reading those two pages, you can watch your cartoon"
Portion your Children's Work
Never ever, give your children lengthy portions to read. In other
words, when you give a lengthy work, like solving 50 math questions
at a time, your children will find it very difficult to memorize all
of them at a time. Instead, segregate the work into small portions
and ask your children to work on them in individual chunks. Let your
children provide you the feedback for each of those sections before
you give the next one.
Create Connections
The best way to teach how to improve memory skills in your children
is to hook different ideas to one important concept and later teach
by using the method of hooking and relating.
Example: Let us say you are teaching a lesson portion related
to history. It is easier for your children to remember the whole
lesson when you create a series of related events connected to the
main theme. Big ideas can be very meaningful for your children. It
is possible to streamline your children's memory skills by making
them to learn and understand the main theme of the story.
Adapt Lessons and Instructions
All children have their methods of learning and remembering them.
You may wish to learn and understand your children's learning style
before teaching memory-improving skills. Some children can pick up
instructions when their teachers read them out aloud, while others
need to look at written sheets to comprehend the meaning. Some
students need very slow paced instruction, while others can
understand them even at a fast pace.
Use the Basic Techniques of Mnemonics
Tools that help your help your children improve memory skills can
assist your children enhance their power of remembering. It is
possible to enhance working memory skills and remember specific
tasks by using these tools.
Mnemonics are the hidden clues of any types that assist your
children remember lessons and instructions. This is possible when
your children associate the available information they want to
remember with a meaningful visual image, a simple sentence or a
complex word.
Some of the most common types of these devices are:
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Visuals: Here, you will be representing and connecting
images and visuals with words and expressions. You may need to use
only positive images while highlighting things. Unpleasant and
negative images could be counterproductive. Let the image be
colorful, vibrant and interesting to your children. Example:
Use the image of a microphone to remember a name like Mike
Use Acronyms: Initials of sentences and words could
help your children remember about various things and objects.
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Memory Enhancement Food
It is also possible to enhance memory skills by providing good
nutrition to your children. A diet based on fresh fruits,
vegetables, meat and whole grains can help develop brains in
children. Vitamins and minerals can also assist your children
develop nervous system in children. B group vitamins can assist
proper development of neurons and gray matter in the brain. Omega 3
fatty acids are those wonderful and natural substances that can act
as effective anti-oxidants in preventing damage to the body system.
Anti-oxidants can improve blood flow and introduce extra doses of
oxygen. Example of good food items are:
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Spinach and other dark leafy greens,
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broccoli,
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asparagus,
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strawberries,
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melons,
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black beans
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citrus fruits,
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soybeans
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blueberries and other berries,
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sweet potatoes,
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red tomatoes,
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spinach,
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broccoli,
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green tea,
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nuts and seeds,
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citrus fruits,
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Liver
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cold-water
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fish such as salmon, herring, tuna, halibut, and mackerel
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walnuts and walnut oil
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flaxseed and flaxseed oil
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