Learning need not be a chore for the young. In fact, you have the time, the process of learning can be expressed as simple games and the children will be eager to participate. You will be pleasantly surprised that they will have fun while their minds are actively engaged. Their capacity for learning and absorbing new information is great when they are young.
This concept is similar when it is applied to improving the child’s capacity for short term memory. If you conceptualize memory activities as a game, they will be eager to participate, not knowing that all the while they are acquiring new knowledge and honing their memory.
The Memory Game – Many of us have attempted such versions of this card game, ‘Memory’. Put the cards face down and flip it over, two at a time. If they form a pair, they remain as they are facing up and the game continues. Should the cards be different, they will be covered once more and the next player gets to try his hand.
This game is a great example of training yourself to remember something ‘ in this case, in order to win the game. When it is repeated consistently, it is useful as it improves your short term memory. Children will happily play this game, never realizing they are improving their short term memory. You can decide to use the normal playing cards, or unique deck of cards from toy shops, or even make your own deck containing knowledge you want them to absorb. Before long, you will find that their short term memory has improved when you see that they can recall the position of the right cards.
Auditory Cues – Simple games can also help children enhance their auditory short term memory. By making it fun and enjoyable, the young enhance their capacity to remember things in the short term without much fuss.
You can read off a list of items such as colors or objects and make it into a game. Read the list to the young and then get them to recall and pen the list down, in the order that you read it. You can add to the number of items whenever you play this. Given some time, the young will be able to recall the items in the correct sequence easily. Such games are effective in improving short term memory in the young and they are also interesting, and can be played anytime, at any place without much hassle.
When putting him through the exercises, by having positive reinforcements, it will motivate your child. A child will instinctively try harder to win a game when they know there is a reward involved.
Simple gifts, toys, stickers and stamps are relatively cheap and useful when motivating the young to participate in games that stimulate the capacity for short term memory. When children pit themselves against other children, such positive rivalry can help improve short term memory.
