This post is very special to me. We are celebrating over 20,000likes to the facebook page of a very dear friend, Deborah J. Stewart.
Teach Preschool, both her
blog and
Facebook page are invaluable resources to educators as well as parents. If you haven’t been over to her, please take a look!
Memory is an essential component of
cognitive development in children. Because play and any sensory experience is an integral part of cognitive development, positive reinforcement through these mediums becomes an essential part of learning.
For me, just as it is to every pre-schooler's mom or teacher, it is essential that the material at our learning table is stimulating enough to maintain attention span and focus for a 2yr+ toddler.
Memory Training through memory games helps develop attention, self-control, processing speed and working memory. Yet another aspect of it is practice. Practice makes perfect and repeating helps in building the ability to be attentive, focus and commit to short-term memory.
Memory Cards: Since the toddler I have been playing with is close to 2yr 9mths, I play more of the conventional memory card game with slight variations as monotony builds up.
When I first gave these a try with him, he had me stumped. He had the cards all down in a jiffy! We played with 16 cards, 8 duplicates, in the first round. I have to confess a large part of his stellar performance was because these had Disney characters. I now play the game with him with enough variations added to the game and with plenty of brain teasers. Isn't it fun to keep them challenged!
Recall the objects: This involves setting out a certain number of objects in a tray. Let the players get a 'peep' of the objects and then take the tray away. The players have to then recall and list the objects that were in the tray. I usually let my toddler say aloud what he sees in the tray, cover the tray and let him recall all that he saw. It takes him time to verbalize but he usually gets them all.
Another great game that I often find teachers playing with their ‘brood’ in a camp is "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing...." As each new object is added, the old objects are repeated. It is another good way to get children to exercise their brain muscles. Isn’t memory so much like muscles, the more you exercise the better we get at it?
King Of the Castle game:
We used to play this game with a slight variation. Each player picked a color and it started with one person becoming the king. The king picks a miscreant by the color of his ha. The miscreant then becomes the king (since he does not have the hat) and this goes on till someone called out a color that did not exist. It goes as follows:
The king of the castle lost his hat,
Some say this and some say that,
But I say (said with great emphasis) Mr. Red.
Mr. Red: I, Sir
King: Yes, Sir
Mr. Red: No, Sir
King: Then who do you think, Sir?
Memory Aids:
An essential learning aid that I picked from experienced hands was to use
Mnemonic techniques.
Catchy phrases, songs and poems are great tools that help memorize. Also known to be a part of Mnemonic techniques, they help in building on familiar.
A phrase or Acrostics: My favorite one helps recall planets in the correct order of distance from the Sun:
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas ( for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto). This phrase has two catchy pieces for a toddler or in fact for any child: ‘Excellent Mother’ and ‘Nine Pizzas’. Regardless, the phrase worked beautifully for my son to memorize the name and position of the planets.
Rhyme and rhythm helps improve or enhances the ability to process sound. This becomes essential in communication skills, learning abilities, attention and behavior, energy levels, coordination, relaxation, brain function, and sensory integration. For two of my thematic units that I posted here, I made up some catchy songs to help my toddler remember. Again, each unit had its fair share of challenges for an average two year old.
Song: Comparative size of water bodies: The magic word was ‘little’ here. Since most toddlers at this stage are learning comparatives, tying in a similar concept of learning helped. I have not had to revisit this unit since and he can still recall the size comparatives, thanks to the song.
Little water pond,
More is in the lake,
Larger is the sea and
Biggest is the ocean.
Poem: Structure of a Meteor:: A topic that moms would typically shy away from, was an easy topic again credit to the short poem.
Little rocky comet with a tail
Leaves behind a sandy trail
When this sand falls with a light
It becomes a shooting star at night
Besides Sand, rock, ribbon and sifting sand in the tray helped create the sensory experience.
Chunking: Remembering numbers: We have yet to start this with our toddler, but I recall my mother often turned remembering dates in history or specific numbers into fun. Say if it was the date of Signing of the Declaration of Independence (US), 4th July 1776, we could recall it by our house number (4717) and last two digits of her social 76. Because of this little trick, I always fared well in history, a subject that I found extremely mundane and tough to get through in class.
Now, how's that for beating the memorizing blues and coming through with flying colors!
More to follow on building memory in the next few posts.
