Cynthia John
Memorisation is an important skill that helps children to succeed academically. Every day, a school-going child’s memory is challenged by the need to remember numbers, formulae, facts and more. Here are some quick and easy memory enhancement techniques for primary school children:
Visual memorisation
It’s much easier for the human brain to recall an image than a list of words. Choose a random list of objects and advise your child to ideate a visual representing the list of words. For instance, you could task them to memorise this list:
- Car
- Elephant
- Book
- Pen
- Umbrella
- Plate
- Chair
Visualise a small car with a large elephant sitting on it. The elephant is holding a large pen, with a book balanced on the pen and a green umbrella on which there is a chair with a plate of corn on it. Visualising this image will commit it to memory and recalling it will enable your child to remember the associated words. Practice turning every lesson into a visual learning exercise. You can also encourage children to use flash cards, diagrams, and videos to remember lessons.
Acronym
An acronym is made out of the first letter of several words. The popular acronym VIBGYOR denotes the colours of the rainbow. It’s not difficult for children to create acronyms to remember lists. For instance, if this list of fruits needs to be memorised:
- Orange
- Pineapple
- Apple
- Banana
- Mango
- Guava
Easily recallable acronym suggestions: BAMGOP, POMGAB or BOMGAP.
Hum a tune
Children and adults memorise songs more easily than fact, figures and school lessons. When an important sentence/paragraph needs to be memorised, try putting it into the tune of a song. Now sing it together with your child several times, and you’ll find that the words have already been memorised. For instance try turning this simple maths lesson into a song (you can also accompany yourselves with a musical instrument):
(Tune of Happy Birthday)
“Triangles have three sides
Rectangles have four sides
Yes, squares also have four sides
But they are all the same.”
Also read: The joy & benefits of learning music
