Memory in humans is a remarkable capacity to store endless amounts of information: numerical, factual, personal, and experiential. We hold the information in memory and then recall it when we need it

Learning and memory go hand in hand. Memory is an important component in early reading and success in school. It is assumed to be present in all children.

The ability to remember words affects reading competence. A good reader is just that because she has memory for words.

A word, once sounded out, need never be sounded out again if it is stored in memory. The importance of memory in early learning cannot be stressed enough.



Children in remedial reading classes seem to have little memory for words. The evidence? They sound out words they have seen and read repeatedly. Simple words like HAD and SIT are sounded out time and time again.

Given the sentences,
- Sam sat in it.
- Mat sat on Sam.

Sam is sounded out each time! So is sat, even though these words are repeated in the second line.

The more quickly a word is remembered and identified, the more easily it is logged and understood. Quick recall of words affects reading fluency and fluidity in oral reading.

How many times have we heard, or used, the phrase I FORGOT! For a teacher in a classroom, that is a standard reply. At times, even when the child knows the answer.

Memory is selective in many children. They remember that Mom said we would be going to dinner at a favorite fast food outlet...

with only one utterance...

yet they fail to remember to pick up their toys after what seems like hundreds of requests and commands.

Memory is a skill. Remembering is as selective as what we see and hear.

Selective memory is not what is needed in school!

Academic memory needs to be trained...

A few years ago, Benny, a 6th grader, became a daily topic of
conversation in the staffroom, at recess. He was in constant
need of attention in the classroom. No amount of explanation
or reteaching, one-to-one, had any effect. He still didn't
know what to do.

Realizing the situation was worsening, I agreed to test Benny
with his parents' consent. The results were astounding.

Testing revealed that Benny had above-average comprehension.
His problem-solving skills were in the superior range, one
level below gifted.

With abilities of that strength, why was Benny in such difficulty?

Quite simply, the test results also showed that Benny couldn't
remember anything long enough to be able to work with it. His
memory deficiency didn't allow him to apply his strong abilities.

Benny's memory was in the disabling range!

Benny needed an active memory training program that involved
visual and auditory memory. Within 6 weeks of one-to-one work,
Benny self-reported that he could understand better.

Benny stayed in the school for 7th grade, but was never referred
to the remedial program, that year. He got what he needed in a
relatively short period of time.

Academic memory needs to be trained. Without practice, your child doesn't develop effective strategies for remembering.

The effect of memory has implications for thinking and understanding. Thnking is affected by how we store information in our brains.

If the information is stored effectively, in proper compartments, it can be accessed efficiently. The child who can't do that has isolated bits of information peppered throughout his brain. It is disorganized and leads to information overload. The child becomes exhausted by having to check each bit of information. The end result is that the child simply gives up!

Memory is rarely, if ever, taught as a specialized skill. Students are still given memory tasks. They are expected to commit a great deal of information to memory.

Unfortunately, they are not shown how to do it. Repetition is an obvious answer. However, there are many other strategies that are easy to demonstrate and teach.

Without direct teaching, we get the discouraging results that lead to abandoning tasks that involve direct use of memory.

There is no doubt we've gotten away from memorizing, in the same way that we have gotten away from copying from the board. Much simpler to use the photocopy machine. More's the pity. For, in doing so, we've lost essential memory practices that lead to success.

Memory