Short term memory's influence on children's functioning in kindergarten and school

Short term memory is the  ability to encode, maintain, and manipulate information in one‟s immediate awareness.  Short term memory includes memory span (the ability to maintain a limited amount of items in immediate awareness) and working memory (the ability to manipulate these items) and is heavily involved in all thinking processes.  When we think and reason, we represent our premises or the conditions of the situation at hand in short term memory, and then create mental models of possible conclusions or possible explanations for the situation.  Mental models are created in short term memory by mentally manipulating the premises or the conditions that were represented.   Thus, shortcomings in short term memory cause individual differences in thinking and reasoning abilities.

How does short term memory affect children's functioning in kindergarten?

Short term memory enables children to maintain instructions given by the teacher until they get them done.  It allows children to maintain or "hold " ideas other children express during conversation, manipulate them (think about them) and plan their response.

A child who raises his hand and then forgets what he wanted to say when he gets permission to speak, may have poor short term memory.

Short term memory enables children to play "tray" (which item is missing, out of 8 items that were placed on a tray a few seconds ago?).

In the first stages of reading and writing acquisition, short term memory enables children to  "hold"  the components of a word they decode (to maintain the sequence of sounds they slowly read aloud in immediate awareness, until they finish reading the entire word) and to integrate them into a whole word.  It enables children to "hold" the sequence of letters or sounds of a written word until they finish writing it.

 

How does short term memory affect the performance of kindergarten children in the psychological assessment – on tests that don't measure short term memory directly?

Children with poor short term memory  find it difficult to "hold" the components of a complex instruction.  The psychologist may have to repeat instructions or questions to help children complete or answer them.  Children may find it difficult to maintain, take into account and manipulate all the components of complex questions found for instance in tests like "Riddles" (KABC2) or  "Word Reasoning" (WPPSI3).

How does short term memory affect children's performance in school?

Short term memory affects children's ability to follow complex instructions given orally ("put your working sheets on the table, put your books inside your bag, get your math notebooks and sit in groups of four").   A child with poor short term memory may perform such instructions only partially, and may need reminders and guidance.

Intact short term memory enables children to take part in a conversation and in class discussions.  It help children to maintain things said by his friends and the teacher in his awareness, think about them (manipulate them), plan his response, and "hold" his response in immediate awareness until the teacher gives him permission to speak.

Children with poor short term memory may find it difficult to follow oral instructions or to think without writing things down.  They may succeed better when instructions are written and when they can write down things during  their thinking processes.

Short term memory enables children to spell words and break them down into phonological sequences.

Short term memory helps children learn new words in English as well as in foreign languages.  It enables us to repeat the sequence of sounds in a new word.

Some of you may be familiar with the slightly embarrassing situation when you enter a room at home for a certain purpose, only to ask yourself:  "what did I come in here for?"  This happens when we fail to maintain our goal in short term memory.

How does short term memory affect the performance of school children on tests that do not assess it directly?

Short term memory affects children's ability to follow complex directions or questions during the assessment process.  Sometimes children will ask us to repeat instructions or questions.

 

We can compare a child's ability to perform arithmetic tasks orally and with the ability to write down.  We'll see if the child generally performs better on written tasks.  When a task is written this lessens the load on short term memory, because there is no need to "hold" the information items in memory span.

We'll look at a child's ability to follow the plot in a very short text read to him or even in a very short text that he reads (assuming his reading, language and general reasoning are intact).  Does the child have to reread the text in order to understand the series of events in the plot?

 What can be done when a child's short term memory is poor?

The teacher can write main ideas he or she teaches on the blackboard.

The teacher can give this child a series of shorter and simpler instructions instead of one long and complex instruction.  After she gives an instruction, the teacher can ask the child to repeat it, in order to help him "hold' it and to make sure he got it.  The child can be given a memory prop like: "I'm going to tell you three things:…"  A child who is aware of her difficulties can write down instructions she gets.  She can write key words that represent the main things said in class discussion, to help her follow it.

Exercise in tasks that require short term memory (the "tray" game) may also be useful.