Work on Their Working Memory

We, as teachers or parents, often make quick judgement about children when they struggle to solve difficult multiplication problems, or label their disengagement as “daydreaming” or “uninterested”, forgetting to look at the matter at grassroots level - memory, or the ability of a learner to recall information. Memory is very simple, yet critical in learning!

It is important to know that working memory plays a role in every step of learning that children take daily. Yet, it remains limited, because when too much information is jammed, it becomes difficult to focus upon the ones needed.

The first step to ensure learning is paying attention to the discussion, activity, or task at hand. That occurs through sensory memory. Once attention is connected to the object, the mind quickly processes the familiar, learned information that has been presented to it or experienced before. This is crucial to learning because it sets focus on what is already available, so that the brain can successfully build upon it. Therefore, this involves recalling information from past learning experiences, which will later be used to combine all this information to host new information.

Working memory involves three parts: verbal information, or phonological loop, visuals or visuospatial sketchpad, are two parts that catch information and store it. These two are simple compared to the third part, the central executive, which is responsible for monitoring and directing the mind to the information needed the most. It is often called the controller or the navigator. It also decides what information to have it fixed as long-term memory. Recently, an additional part was introduced, the episodic buffer, to connect the long-term memory to the working memory. Each part performs a separate function, but the three play an essential role in the process of cementing information unto the brain in these developing stages.

One of the examples I have worked on was of a third grader, who found great difficulty writing even small texts during dictation sessions, despite that the teacher read slowly and clearly. When I attended the periods to observe the situation, I have witnessed the frustration on the child’s face, who not only could not follow up with her peers, but also felt sad, and that sadness extended beyond the sessions. She even expressed that she felt bad because she could not get correctly spelled words the way she did at home when her mother helped her out, preparing for the dictation session. After checking with the mother, the mother as one-on-one, repeated the words, so slowly and gave hints to trigger understanding, which naturally the teacher cannot do in the class. The child could not understand speech in regular class environments, such as a classroom with 15 other learners, although she could use other skills and abilities to help her learning.

How to handle doubts of WM deficits

1. Detect whether there is a WM deficit. There are two assessment tools that can detect such deficiencies, done through tests and subtests, that involve various types of variables, such as digit recall, listening recall practices, mazes memory, odd-one-out, and others. Writing, Reading, Foreign Language, Mathematics and Science are also involved, so that challenges in performance are observed by the teacher, including their frequency and intensity.

2. Strategies, mainly scaffolding, can reduce overloaded or jammed memory. Few of the strategies that teachers can use are listed below:

a. Mental processing phonics and math, such as locations of letters and words

b. Simplifying information so that the mind of a learner is not overloaded

c. Sorting out concepts and items

d. Practicing repeating order of words, songs, phone numbers, directions, etc.

e. Listing things or even how-to-do activities and repeating with the children

f. Doing as much reading comprehension as possible

g. Limiting the choices given so that teacher or parent can easily grab the learner’s attention

h. Presenting and discussing ways with the child to remember steps, directions, etc, that are suitable to him/her

i. Practicing memory aids with the children before assigning independent work

3. Suggest extra training programs that yield better and stronger WM

It is surprising how working memory is essential in understanding and solving problems and challenges in everyday learning; yet, it is the least noticed by educators. During the hustle of class assignments, teachers do not notice that many learners are restricted within the capacity of the working memory, which is logically limited. Giving more attention to it and studying its parameters can assist in finding solutions to a variety of problems encountered daily in classrooms and homes.

It should also be noted that working memory is most active during ages 4 to 15 and in some individuals to 18 years old. In this manner, we as educators and parents are encouraged to nourish it to grow every year of age and academic level because the bottom line is that, it will be solidified as long-term memory.

Working memory impairment is not a problem by itself, but it features other challenging cases of learning difficulties. Working on enhancing working memory though, strengthens attention, so that it is longer held and more effectively used to combine information and build concepts, rather than losing them.