It’s wonderful to hear strategies that teachers found useful in the classroom and I thought that I would share one of them with you. This is from Alison, a Special Need Teacher in Scotland.
“I was trying to teach initial blends to a child with enormous difficulties perceiving the two sounds in initial blends. The task was to identify whether 2 and then which 2 out of 3 words begun with the same blend. Initially I introduced this task orally but quickly realized that if I put out pictures of the words it reduced the memory load and he was able to focus on developing the key skill. Similarly word tracking tasks where I would like the child to change a letter to make a new word were enormously difficult and threatening for this child. He became distressed when I repeated the words in an attempt to help him. Making a visual picture strip of the word sequence helped to reduce the memory load and enabled him both, to feel a greater sense of control and to focus on the ‘working’ part of the task rather than the ‘memory’ part.”
Have you found something that worked in your classroom? I would love to hear about it.
As a thank you to those who have been reading my blog, I have attached a 20% off voucher for a book:
Working Memory and Learning: A Practical Guide for Teachers
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`The topic of working memory nowadays tends to dominate discussions with teachers and parents, and both groups can helpfully be directed to this easy-to-read but serious text … (it) is likely to prove a turning-point in the management and facilitation of hard-to-teach children. In a situation muddied by ever-multiplying syndromes and disorders, this book delivers a clarifying and reassuring isolation of the major cognitive characteristic that cuts across all the boundaries and leaves the class teacher and SENCO empowered. I think very highly of the book and shall be recommending it steadily’ - Martin Turner, Child Center for Evaluation and Teaching, Kuwait
What’s the difference between having ADHD and poor working memory? Children with ADHD not only have trouble sitting still and are often acting out, teachers usually comment that their classroom performance is poor and they often forget vital information, such as instructions, the right books for their classes, where they need to be. Do they have poor working memory?
Yes. One of the most consistent findings in scientific studies is that children with ADHD have very poor working memory, particularly when they have to remember visual information, such as graphs or images. As part of a government-funded project that I lead, I found that children with ADHD were 4x more likely to have working memory problems compared to their peers without attention problems. This has serious impacts on their learning. As a result of their working memory problems, they will struggle in the classroom.
This doesn’t mean that all children with poor working memory have ADHD. In fact, as part of a different government-funded project, I found that children with poor working memory (that don’t have ADHD) are actually NOT impulsive or hyperactive. They aren’t disrupting the class, they aren’t bouncing off the walls. As a result, the teacher doesn’t notice there is a problem. At least not until it’s too late. Not until they start failing because they haven’t grasped key concepts in the lesson or can’t understand what to do and how to do it.
Ultimately, both students with ADHD and those with poor working memory need our help. Addressing their behavior won’t bring lasting change to learning. Supporting their working memory is the only way to help make sense of what goes on in the classroom. Find out more about testing and supporting working memory.
Why do students with poor working memory have more difficulty doing horizontal math problems versus vertical ones?
– Lauren, Richmond, VA
Visuo-spatial memory functions like a mental blackboard: visual information is recorded and kept active for a short period of time. When math problems are presented horizontally, a student has to rely on their working memory to carry numbers correctly to solve the problem. When solving horizontal math problems, you may notice that a student with poor working memory will make very simple mistakes, such as forgetting to carry the number, or adding up the sum without the carried number.
Teachers often tell me that they don’t understand why this student keeps making the same mistakes when they have told him/her how to solve math problems many times. Do not be surprised to discover that techniques such as repetition won’t be very useful here as students with poor visuo-spatial memory have difficulty in visualizing numbers.
A simple technique to help a student to better visualize the math problem and take off the pressure from their visuo-spatial working memory is to present the problem vertically. Here is an example:
Give your student a math problem such as 18 + 24 = __ written out horizontally. Then ask them to write it vertically as
18
+ 24
____
Initially, it is not necessary that they solve the problems, only that they write it vertically. If you like, you can ask them to solve the problems once they are confident writing it down.
I teach 5 year olds and often give them 3 instructions. I’ve noticed that many of them seem to forget what they need to do and end up wandering around the classroom. Is this a sign of a working memory problem?
The average 5 year old can only remember about 2 pieces of information: this means 2 instructions, 2 words, and so on. When you give them more information to remember, they will likely forget it as it exceeds their working memory ’space’ or their ‘post-it note’.
So, if you are working with 5 year olds, it is best to give them short instructions of no more than 2 things to do at a time. If you still find some children struggling, they may have a working memory problem. To find out more about how to test a child’s working memory, click here.
