"Where there is no interest, there is no memory." Goethe's words perfectly capture the memory characteristics of young children. Wise parents should never "command" children to memorize this or that, but rather let them learn and remember through play. Just think of clapping songs like "One clap, two claps, go to bed early, rise early..." It's easy to imagine how much children can unintentionally memorize through games.Numerous games can train young children's memory, such as reciting rhymes, telling stories, solving riddles, and singing nursery songs.
Part Two: Defining Tasks
Even you might not recall how many steps are on a staircase you've climbed countless times. But if you tell your child, "Count the steps on the stairs so you can tell Grandma on Sunday,"they'll surely remember. Similarly, when telling a story, preface it with, "Mommy will tell you a story, and later you can retell it to Daddy." This prompts them to recall the tale better. Why? Because the task is clearly defined. When memory tasks have explicit goals, it heightens excitability in relevant brain regions, forming dominant excitatory centers that enhance retention.
Three-Step Approach: Full Comprehension
What constitutes comprehension? It means connecting new knowledge to existing knowledge and experience in the mind. Once connected, it becomes easier to remember. Therefore, you should fully leverage your child's existing knowledge and experience to help them establish links between new knowledge and old knowledge in their mind.For example, when memorizing multiplication tables, you can help your child grasp the principle: "When the multiplier stays the same, adding '1' to the multiplicand increases the product by one." This way, they can quickly memorize the tables using their existing addition knowledge. Fourth Step: Add Meaning If the material to be memorized has inherent meaning, let your child understand it first before memorizing. But what about meaningless information?You can guide your child to attach "meaning" to the material. Specific methods include:
Imagination Method. For example, to help your child remember that Mount Fuji is 12,365 feet high, you can imagine Mount Fuji as a "two-year-old" mountain. Think of the first two digits as 12 months (one year) and the last three digits as 365 days (one year). This visualization makes it easy to remember.
Phonetic Association. For instance, Marx was born on May 5, 1818. To remember this date, use the phonetic association: Marx—to prosper, prosper (1818)—beat the capitalists until they wail (5) wail (5).
Visual association. Picture-based learning is the quintessential visual method. For instance, to help children memorize Arabic numerals, visualize them as follows: 1 resembles a pencil's slender shaft, 2 like a duckling floating on water, 3 shaped like an ear listening, 4 as a flag waving in the wind,5 like a fishing hook, 6 like a smiling bean sprout, 7 like a scythe cutting grass, 8 like a twisted pretzel, 9 like a spoon for eating, 0 like an egg for cake.
Mnemonic rhymes. For instance, the rhyme "One, three, five, seven, eight, ten, twelve, thirty-one days, no mistake" helps children quickly remember which months have 31 days.
Derivation Method. For instance, if a child's birthday is in April, their mother's is in May, and their father's is in June. The child only needs to remember one person's birthday month and can deduce the rest.
Five-Step Approach: Timing is Key
Memory retention varies depending on when information is learned. Research shows that material learned before sleep is remembered best. This is because sleep follows learning, eliminating distractions and allowing the brain to consolidate memories effectively. Therefore, share stories, riddles, or rhymes with your child just before bedtime.
Step Six: Engage Multiple Senses
An experiment using ten picture cards revealed: auditory recall achieved 60% retention, visual recall 70%, while combining visual, auditory, and verbal activities yielded 86.3% retention. This demonstrates that multi-sensory engagement establishes multiple neural pathways in the cerebral cortex.
Step Seven: Repeated Reinforcement
Zhang Pu, a highly educated scholar of the Ming Dynasty renowned for his formidable memory, trained himself by reading an article once, then copying it once, repeating this process seven times before burning it. This method of repeated reinforcement enabled his encyclopedic knowledge.Young children, whose memory retention is shorter-lived, require even more frequent reinforcement to consolidate learning.
Memory should involve both effective retention and recall. Some children know a great deal but struggle to recall it when needed—not because they haven't memorized it, but because they lack recall skills. Therefore, training a child's memory involves not only helping them memorize but also teaching them to recall. Encourage them to systematically categorize and organize information stored in their minds.For example, after a child learns a certain number of characters, you can help them categorize them by shape or pronunciation. As they learn more, continue adding them to the corresponding categories. This systematic storage in the mind makes recall easier. In short, the more systematic the "storage" in the mind, the easier it is to "retrieve" information when needed.