One of the executive functions skills we teach at Catch Up Kids is memory.
- Auditory Memory
What is it? Auditory memory is the ability to recall information that has been heard.
Give me an example of how we use it in daily life: To remember the names of new people you have been introduced to at a party or work meeting.
Give me an example of how my child would use it in the classroom: To recall information given verbally by the teacher.
Give me an example of how Catch Up Kids might teach improved auditory memory skills: Teaching your child to follow multi-step instructions, starting at one- or two-step instructions and building up systematically until they can follow complex multi-step instructions.
- Visual Memory
What is it? Visual memory is the ability to recall information that has been seen.
Give me an example of how we use it in daily life: To remember what was written on the grocery shopping list you left at home!
Give me an example of how my child would use it in the classroom: To remember information written on the board by the teacher.
Give me an example of how Catch Up Kids might teach improved visual memory skills: Having your child look at a simple picture for a few seconds, then hiding the picture and asking them to recall details about what they saw in the picture. Thereafter we would systematically increase the complexity of the picture or perhaps build in a delay between when your child sees the picture and when they are asked to recall details from the picture.
- Spatial Memory
What is it? Spatial memory is the ability to recall spatial information.
Give me an example of how we use it in daily life: To remember the geographical layout of your hometown or the interior of your friend’s house.
Give me an example of how my child would use it in the classroom: To remember how to get from one class to another or to remember where various classroom materials are stored.
Give me an example of how Catch Up Kids might teach improved spatial memory skills: Showing your child a picture of a simple block structure for a few seconds, then hiding the picture, providing them with the materials needed to recreate the block structure in the picture and then asking them to do so. We would systematically increase the difficulty by increasing the number of blocks used in the block structure and/or increasing the delay between when your child sees the picture and when he or she is asked to recreate the structure seen in the picture.
- Episodic Memory
What is it? Episodic memory is the ability to recall events.
Give me an example of how we use it in daily life: To remember an event you attended with someone so that it can act as a basis for conversation.
Give me an example of how my child would use it in the classroom: To remember social events attended with friends so that it can act as a basis for conversation and friendship maintenance.
Give me an example of how Catch Up Kids might teach improved episodic memory skills: By asking your child details about memorable events that have happened, at first soon after the event and gradually after longer and longer periods of time.
- Working Memory
What is it? Working memory is the ability to store information on a short-term basis so that you can process it in some way and produce an output.
Give me an example of how we use it in daily life: To take summarised notes during a work conference.
Give me an example of how my child would use it in the classroom: To hold numerical information in his or her mind while problem-solving in Maths. Note: improvement in attention, another domain in our executive functions curriculum, often leads to improvement in working memory.
Give me an example of how Catch Up Kids might teach improved working memory skills: By giving your child a sequence of words or numbers to recall in reverse order.
There are so many fun games you can play with your child to improve his or her memory! Here are a few:
- Put five objects on a try, such as a pencil, pen, small toy, shell or ornament. Ask your child to study them for a couple of minutes. Put a cover over the tray. How many objects can your child remember? A variation of this game is to remove one of the objects while the tray is covered and ask your child to spot which one is missing.
- Take a standard pack of playing cards and remove the numbers 6-10 from the pack. Place the remaining cards face down on the table in eight rows of four. Each player tries to find a matching pair by turning up two cards. If it is not a matching pair, the cards are placed fade down again in the same position. If they do match, the player keeps this pair of cards and has another turn. When all the pairs have been found, the player with the most pairs wins.
- Tell your child to imagine going on a holiday. Start off by saying, “I packed my suitcase an put in my… hairbrush”. The next person repeats the phrase but adds on an extra item, e.g. “I packed my suitcase and put in my hairbrush and t-shirt.” And so on.
- Get three plastic cups and a small item such as a coin. Place the item under a cup, making sure your child knows which one it’s under. Move the cups around and ask your child which cup the item is under.
- Ask your child to study you, paying attention to what you are wearing. Leave the room and change one thing. For example, you could take of an earring, tie your hair back or change your shirt. Come back in and ask your child to spot what you have changed. You can also play this game on a white board. Draw a person or scene and rub one thing out when your child is not looking.
