Giving our brain a boost to increase our retention is always a good idea.
It is widely believed that a good memory capacity is something innate, but the truth is that it can be improved through practice.
- Recommended article:”Human brain: its main parts and functions”
Exercises to improve memory for children and adolescents
Let’s look at 20 exercises to improve the memory of children and adolescents, in addition to understanding what can harm memory and some tips for parents.
1. Memorize song lyrics
Learning the lyrics of the songs is a good technique to test your memory, as well as being fun. Children and teenagers always enjoy a good melody. You can practice writing the lyrics in a notebook and singing them until you memorize them.
2. Storytelling
All children like good stories. Reading them a story and then asking them to say what they remember is a good exercise to strengthen memory.
Also, you can test your memory by telling the story again and get it wrong on purpose somewhere, to see if they correct us and tell us what really happened.
In addition, you can go to one more level, and invent a story between the two, write it down and make one day the adult who tells it and another the child.
3. Put objects in order
Different everyday objects are placed on a table, and the child is asked to take a good look at them. These objects are then hidden in a box and, after a while, the child is asked to place them as they were on the table.
To increase the level of difficulty you can make that, when giving the objects, they have new and see if the child remembers whether they were or not.
4. I have seen, I have seen…
If we go to an acquaintance’s house or go to a store, the memory of the child or adolescent can be tested by asking him if he had noticed any object in that place .
Thus, you can compete to see who remembers more objects.
5. The phone game
This can be very suitable for teenagers since it is very dynamic and can be played by several people.
One of the young people is told a phrase, which he must say to his partner as he remembers it. The partner must do the same and so on, until reaching the last member of the chain.
At the end, the original sentence will be compared with the one that has reached the end. It can be a lot of fun to see how the same phrase has undergone an evolution as it has traveled through the chain. This puts auditory and working memory into practice.
6. Learn languages
Multilingualism has acquired a fundamental role in the 21st century .
Taking advantage of the fact that new words are learned relatively easily at an early age, learning languages such as English or French can be of great help for the future of children and young people, in addition to putting memory into practice by learning new vocabulary. .
The academies are fine, but at home this learning can be facilitated by teaching the name of household objects in the language that you want to teach.
7. Videos and movies
Audiovisual media are always attractive to children . After watching a movie, we can ask him to remind us of everything he has seen, what the characters were like, what the houses were like or the places where the action took place.
8. Matching Cards
It is a simple game to understand and practice, and if you don’t have one at home you can always make a homemade one.
Cards are distributed, which form pairs with the same image. They are turned so that their blank part is visible. The youngster will have to rotate them to find the pairs of images .
Difficulty can be added by pairing very similar images but with different details or by adding more cards.
9. Simon Says
This game is suitable for children ages 5 and up. It consists of a device that illuminates colored lights following a sequence, and the participants must press them following the same order .
If you don’t have one of these at home, you can do it manually. Placing some colored cardboard, cut in the form of triangles forming a diamond. One is in charge of being the one who invents the sequences and the rest must touch the cards following the same order.
10. Walk and learn
While walking, you can show historical places in the city, unusual animals or some striking site. When returning from a walk, you can ask the child that this time he be the one to guide us , explaining in detail what is on the way.
11. Chained Words
It is ideal for practicing both memory and language and learning new vocabulary.
In this activity, aspects of memory are put into practice, such as the speed of processing and retrieval of information.
Ideally, it should be practiced in groups of 4 or 5 people. One person says a word out loud, and the next person has to say another that begins with the same syllable as the previous one. For example, if one says “house” the next one has to say a word that starts with “sa”, like “sack”, and then the next one with “co”, like “food”.
12. Memorize people from a photo
A photo is presented in which there are several people. Then he hides. The child or adolescent is asked to try to remember what they were like, what they were wearing , if one was taller than the other…
13. Repeat phrases mentally
The game starts with one of the participants saying a sentence . The next must say the same phrase and add another, such as “big house” and “black dog”. And so on. The game continues until one of the participants is unable to remember all the phrases.
14. Word families
The name of a semantic category is indicated, such as animals, cities, countries, colors…
Each person will have to say a word that is within that semantic field , without repeating what the others have said. The game continues until one player is unable to say a new word.
15. Strings of numbers
To work on working memory, this activity is really good. It consists of saying sequences of numbers and another person trying to remember them once they have all been said .
To add difficulty, the sequences can be made longer and longer, starting with sequences of only two numbers (eg, 1-7) until reaching ten or more (3-9-8-5-6-7 …).
16. Play chess
One of the advantages of this game is that it can be set as an objective to see to what extent the children remember the rules and put them into practice . In addition to testing memory, reasoning, visuospatial skills and strategy are also practiced.
17. Poems, tongue twisters and riddles
They are good ways to practice memory , and can be considered a higher level of difficulty than memorizing song lyrics.
18. Puzzles
Remembering where a certain detail of the image that makes up the puzzle went is a very good way to put visuospatial skills into practice . Thanks to the wide variety of puzzles on the market, you can gradually increase the number of pieces and train your memory.
19. Copying and reproduction of figures
Another good way to practice visuospatial memory is this exercise. It consists of seeing, copying and drawing a geometric figure .
It is ideal to do it in a group. One of the members draws a figure, either abstract or one that represents something real, in the way they like best but adapted to the age group of the rest of the group members.
The rest of the group is asked to observe it well. They are asked to copy it using the original figure as a model.
Then the drawing is removed, paper and pencils are given and they are asked to draw the same figure in the best way they remember.
20. Find the differences
To finish, one of the most classic examples of exercises to test memory is to find the differences between two apparently identical images . This helps to work short-term memory.
What obstacles can affect memory?
In everyday life, there are many factors that can negatively affect the memory of children and adolescents . It is true that they may be due to medical problems and, in that case, it will be necessary to go to a professional to be able to make a diagnosis and develop a treatment.
But, in most cases, it is due to more mundane but equally harmful things, not only for studies, but also to be able to develop as people adapted to the demands of life.
Overuse of television, computers and mobile phones, poor sleep hygiene along with stress can lead to a lack of interest and concentration problems in studies, but can also lead to memory problems, especially lack of sleep because it makes you feel tired.
A disorganized lifestyle in parents, together with poor eating habits, make it difficult for the brain of the youngest to function correctly, manifesting memory problems.
tips for adults
In addition to performing the exercises presented here, it is recommended that parents promote good health habits.
Increasing the consumption of nuts, oily fish, vegetables and dairy products contributes to good brain functions. Also, it is advisable to set a time when they should go to bed, and thus ensure that they sleep the recommended 8 hours. Limiting the use of electronic devices, especially mobile phones, is a good step to prevent them from being distracted and paying more attention to their surroundings.
An organized lifestyle will help them go to sleep on time, in addition to planning the day and avoiding interference when doing homework and studying. They must learn that everything must be done in due time. In the face of the carelessness of young people, a firm but understanding stance must be chosen. You have to make them see the consequences of forgetting something important.
If young people are already showing signs that they are trying to improve their memory or are struggling to remember what they have learned in school, they should be congratulated and encouraged. This motivates them to continue doing so.
References
- Feldman, Robert S. (2005). Psychology with applications in Spanish-speaking countries. Mexico: McGraw Hill.
- Garcia-Allen, Jonathan (2016). “Types of Memory: How Does the Human Brain Store Memories?” Psicologiaymente.com
- Kandel, E. (1997). Neuroscience and behavior. Pearson.
- Soprano, Ana María (2007). “The Memory of the Child: Normal Development and Disorders”.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.