Memory Issues

Children with working memory or short term memory issues need specialist interventions that support this memory defect, and in turn, strengthens them.

Working memory is best understood if we think about its as a sort of mental workbench. Think of a bench in your garage or shed, its where you put the materials you need to work with, its also where you would store the instructions. Everything you need to complete a creative task is there on the bench.

It’s the same in your minds. When we need to do something like a maths problem or write a sentence, we need to use our mental workbench. The instructions for the task e.g. the question. The rules of the task, e.g. the maths concepts, or grammar structures. Then seeing the task right, the way through to the end. This is easier if it is a simple task like adding, or writing one sentence, but when the task has more than one step or requires a whole paragraph, the task complexity can cause an overload (not enough room on the workbench, so things fall off on the floor and get forgotten about).

This is where the child often has to resort to guessing to finish the task, or goes off in the wrong direction. Every time this happens, a learning opportunity has been missed, and it mistakenly appears the child didn’t or couldn’t understand the task.

Often these children will get mislabelled as not listening, zoning out or ‘in one ear and out the other.’ This is humiliating for the child.

How can we help?

When providing tuition for working memory/ short term memory problems our tutors do two things. We support your child by reducing the mental workload and re-presenting the information in ways your child can understand and support these memory problems.

We also can teach your child technical strategies such as chucking information, breaking tasks down and how to stay connected to the aim of the task.

We can also support working memory by supporting with working memory tasks designed to strengthen that memory system.#

Get in touch if you would help for your child.

Would you like to get in touch about tuition?

Then please ring 01747 859102 / 07444575543, send an email to [email protected] or click the button below to use our contact form. We look forward to hearing from you.