Memory, retention and language processing skills are fundamental to learning and academic progress.
Reading & Maths
Over 80% of children with low working memory struggle in reading and maths.
We need memory and processing skills to help us learn and remember maths skills such as:
Counting sequences
Mental arithmetic
Times tables
Phone numbers
Number bonds
And for the learning and reciting of familiar sequences like:
Days of the week
Months of the year
The alphabet
Colours of the rainbow
Birthdays and special events
Literacy Skills
Memory, processing and retention difficulties impact on reading comprehension, including understanding the text, being able to relate to the information and re-tell the information to another person.
Understanding sentences and paragraphs that are written or spoken aloud is one of the areas we Speech Therapists assess.
Other areas include understanding concepts and following specific directions.
Writing and Spelling
Memory and processing skills can impact on the ability to learn and retain new vocabulary as well as learning and remembering spelling patterns and rules.
Sounding out words when writing is also a key skill that relies on memory as a foundation.
The learning and development of grammar patterns such as word endings, pronouns and tenses can also be affected and are monitored by Speech and Language Therapists.
Social Skills
The development of social skills and friendships, learning new rules and remembering things about other people all require good memory, processing and comprehension skills.
Wider Curriculum
Children with memory and processing difficulties struggle in science where they need to be able to:
💭 Follow precise instructions for experiments and investigations
💭 Learn categories such as animal families, minerals, forces, textures, habitats
💭 Learn and remember formulas (older pupils)
💭 Learn and remember properties of elements (older pupils)
💭 Learn and understand about our bodies
Religious Education and History involve learning about different events, stories and dates which can be a challenge for children to remember.
Learning about countries and continents, planets and the solar system, types of rock and climate change are all topics in Geography that can be problematic for pupils who struggle to remember and process information.
Meeting Age Related Expectations
Children with memory and processing difficulties are likely to make poor academic progress but can fall below criteria thresholds for SEN. They tend to sit in the 'lower ability' groups.
Difficulties in any of the above areas indicates to Teachers that a pupil needs extra targeted support for their memory and processing skills and if you've identified a child in our class or setting with these difficulties, I have the perfect thing to help you.
My online short course in Supporting Children with Memory and Processing difficulties.
It's packed with information, theory and practical activities. Everything you need to know about this topic and how you can help those children in your setting, whether you're in a preschool, primary or secondary school.
👉 Gain a sound understanding of the range and types of difficulties faced by the children you work with.
👉 Understand how memory and retention works.
👉 The barriers to learning and impacts of these difficulties on children.
👉 Learn strategies to support your pupils in the classroom
👉 Discover a variety of easily implementable interventions which can be modified to suite different ages, abilities and interests.
👉 You will see progress in the children that you work with, and you’ll be able to use these skills and interventions with future cohorts.
This course is available for instant access, with unlimited logins so you can start and complete it at your own pace, without deadlines.
There are plenty of bonus documents to download, including the Memory & Processing Interventions eBook (sold separately for £15 but it's included in this course for FREE!).
🏆 Plus you'll get a certificate for your CPD file.
You can find out more about the course and book your seat here: https://www.thespeechandlanguagegarden.com/memory-and-processing-course