I’m sure genetics plays a big role my son’s strong working memory, but his progress while training has been fast enough that I’m more than 90% confident that the training has significantly helped. Memory aids (like spell check) do reduce the value of having a good working memory, but don’t come close to negating it especially for children who will be taking many closed book exams, and because having to keep looking up things (like the syntax for a for loop) costs time, attention, and flow.
I don’t remember exactly when he started, but I know we were doing memory training when he was 6. The first thing we did was him repeating back a numerical sequence he heard from me.
I started doing comparable games (repeat long words, non-sense words and sentences) when they were quite young (basically growing out of talking with them when they started learning to talk). With the older trying too. But these games only confirm the same thing: Repeating a sequence by rote is hard (for them). Repeating whole sentences is much easier—but it likely happens that only the meaning is transported not the literal form. Songs are even more easy—but I’d guess that that’s due to other types of memory (rhythm?) cueing in.
Re: nonsense words—I use it to teach English to my 4-year old when we go outside. He sees a car—I tell him that it’s an ‘elephant’s car’, and say ‘elephant’ in English—he returns ‘elephant-mobile’:)
I’m sure genetics plays a big role my son’s strong working memory, but his progress while training has been fast enough that I’m more than 90% confident that the training has significantly helped. Memory aids (like spell check) do reduce the value of having a good working memory, but don’t come close to negating it especially for children who will be taking many closed book exams, and because having to keep looking up things (like the syntax for a for loop) costs time, attention, and flow.
When did he start this working memory training? Were there pre-cursors?
I don’t remember exactly when he started, but I know we were doing memory training when he was 6. The first thing we did was him repeating back a numerical sequence he heard from me.
I started doing comparable games (repeat long words, non-sense words and sentences) when they were quite young (basically growing out of talking with them when they started learning to talk). With the older trying too. But these games only confirm the same thing: Repeating a sequence by rote is hard (for them). Repeating whole sentences is much easier—but it likely happens that only the meaning is transported not the literal form. Songs are even more easy—but I’d guess that that’s due to other types of memory (rhythm?) cueing in.
Re: nonsense words—I use it to teach English to my 4-year old when we go outside. He sees a car—I tell him that it’s an ‘elephant’s car’, and say ‘elephant’ in English—he returns ‘elephant-mobile’:)