Memory

We often think that a child's memory is good because they appear to be able to recall and comment on something that has happened a few months ago or years ago. And yes, it is good.

However, there is more to memory than this.
Does your child remember visually?
Does your child remember auditorily?
How is their working memory?
How is the short-term memory?
It can be frustrating to realise that your child can remember events from the past, but not an instruction that you gave them a few minutes ago. That's because there are different types of memory.

Working memory enables you to remember what you are doing as you are doing it. It enables a child to concentrate on a task. It enables a child to use their other skills, such as reasoning, cognition, vision, etc, and therefore learn.
Short term memory enables you to remember where you put something down 10 minutes ago. It enables a child to remember the teachers instruction, or your instruction.
Long term memory is what we commonly talk about as memory - the ability to recall what happened a couple of months ago.
Factors affecting development of memory:

• ability to inhibit or take no notice of surrounding stimuli (sounds, movements, visual stuff)
• the emotional charge - negative or positive - affects whether information gets from working to short term to long term memory. Or whether it gets interrupted.
• the ability to concentrate for long enough to learn the whole sequence of a task. Or maybe only parts of the task or activity are remembered, which leads to confusion.
• the ability to form a concept about the event and links to other events.