Working Memory Games

In the summer of 2015, I was able to attend the national Apraxia conference. During the conference, my favorite lecture was given by Lynn Carahaly on the topic of working memory. The brain has always fascinated me, and thinking about thought is mesmerizing! Anyway, here is a combination of the games I do with my kids to work on memory and some suggestions that were given during the lecture.

Working Memory Games

The idea for all these games is to practice using memory. The more we do this, the better our memory is. Working memory is the ability a person has to hold a set of information in your mind, and manipulate the data in that information.

For example, I say “3BH6F2X”. Now cover that up, and just think about it. What are all the numbers in the order I gave them? What were all the letters? Alphabetically? In reverse order? The ability to do that is “working memory”. There are tons of games to play that help improve this! Just like a muscle, it needs to be exercised and the ability strengthened.

Memory- Okay, duh! The little game Memory, and you play with your child. I intentionally think out loud so that they learn the thought process of remembering, like, “Hm, I think that the dinosaur was right there, and I know this one is a sandwich and that one is a dolly, so I won’t choose those because it wouldn’t be a match. I think that the other dinosaur will be here!”

 

Invisible Tic Tac Toe- This one is obviously for a little older of kids- ones that already know how to play tic tac toe. I would say “I choose the middle! O!” and my partner says, “I put X on the top right corner” and I say “I pick the bottom right corner” and so on until you have a winner. This is a great game for the car!

 

Digispan- This is the example from above. Give a random string of numbers and letters, and have the child repeat it back to you, forwards or backwards. Start with small quantities and increase from there! So with my SATB2 girly, I do 2-4, and with my son, I do 7-8.

Bag Remembering- We have done this in different boxes, under towels, and in bags and stockings, geared toward our themed learning days. Get several items, show them to the kids, then hide it in the bag and ask them to guess what was there. Especially if it was something highly motivating for that child, they are eager to remember. For my son, I put in things like his action figure knights, a dragon, a little sword and shield, etc. Once he is able to remember all the items, we play together. Same with my daughter, and I usually use different princesses, dress-up items, etc. that motivate her.

Raise Your Hand- For this game, tell the kids to remember a word (or several words) and say, “Okay, when I saw elephant, raise your hand!” then tell a story about an elephant. As they become adept at this, move up and say “Now when you hear the words monkey or water, raise your hand!” For older kids, use more common words that get overlooked like “and”, “then”, or “it”.

Mental Arithmetic- Again, this is for a little older of kids. Just give a word problem. The child then has to figure out what is being asked, decode the correct numbers, and then crunch the numbers correctly.

Response Set- For this game, have four colored circles. Start with “When I say red, touch red. When I say green, touch green. Black is black, and yellow is yellow”. Easy, right? Then switch it up and say “Now when I say red, touch black. When I say black, touch red. Yellow is still yellow, and green is still green.” Continue to switch up the colors named with colors touched, and can add more colors if desired.

Nonsense Words- For a younger kid, say a couple nonsense words “blurple” or “flibt” and have them repeat it back to you, or rhyme them, etc. For an older child, give them another nonsense word and ask which letter in that word would come first? Second? Last?

Rapid Fire Memory- See how many of a category you can name in amount of time. So, how many animals can you name in a minute?

Compare and Contrast- Pick two objects and ask, "So, how are a teepee and igloo similar? Different? What about a car and a bicycle?"

 

Naming Game- Just like categories from the Car Games post, but this time we name everything that has been said. So if the category was “Things in the Forest”, I would say bear, then Chelsea says trees and bear, then Ryan says wolf and trees and bear. So on and so forth.

Silly Pizza Song- If anyone is similar with the Signing Time “Silly Pizza Song”, you know what I am talking about. If not, look it up really quick. We sing this in the car all the time, but adapt it to be our own, and it is pretty much the same thing as the naming game. So I will sing “I like peppers on my pizza, I like pepper pizza please. Put the peppers on the pizza, don’t forget the extra cheese”. Then Chelsea picks princesses (my kids love singing about eating non-edibles), so we sing, “I like princesses on my pizza, I like princess pizza please. Put the princesses on the peppers, put the peppers on the pizza, don’t forget the extra cheese!”

There are tons of fun memory games for kids that can be found on pinterest and many other sites- they are so good for brain development! Happy learning!