Five memory techniques for kids: First-letter Mneumonics, Association, Rhymes, Patterns, Chunking

First Letter Mneumonic

First-letter mneumonics is useful when you're trying to remember a list of items and need to get them in order, or not leave one out. It simply means taking the first letter of each word on the list and then inventing a sentence in which the words begin with those same letters. After looking at the example, try a couple of sample questions before looking at the answers.

(Answers: -- First-Letter Mnemonics Practice Questions

#1. Many sentences could be formed, but a very well-known one is

" M y v ery e ducated m other j ust s erved u s n ine p izzas."

#2. Any sentence would do. A famous one is

" K ing P hilip c ame o ver f or g olf (in) S cotland."

#3. H O M E S !)

Example : The musical scale "EGBDF" is memorized by thinking of the sentence "Every Good Boy Does Fine."

Practice #1:
Suppose you want to remember the order of the planets in the solar system.

Take the first letter of each planet name: M V E M J S U N P.

Can you make these letters into the first letters of the words of a sentence? What sentence might you make with these letters that would make them easy to recall?

Practice #2:

Classification of Organismskingdoms phylum class order family genus species

How might you remember the hierarchy of these classification systems in biology?

Make a sentence using: K P C O F G S

Practice #3:
The Great Lakes are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior. What word could you spell using the first letters of their names, in order to remember all 5 lakes?

Association
This activity will give your child a feel for what it means to memorize by using the method of association. Give your child this list of symbols and words:

Tell children to memorize the pairs (O is boy, X is girl, etc.). The order in which they memorize the pairs is not important. Allow a certain amount of time (30 seconds to 2 minutes, according to capabilities). Then ask them to recall as many of the pairs as they can, and ask them to explain their method of memorization.

Next, explain that ASSOCIATION will make memorization is much easier. Then, together think of ways to associate the symbol in the right column with the word in the left column. For example: the "m" reminds you of the "m" in summer, the + as the "t" in white, etc. Retest children. You will find that these associations will make them remember not only better, but also longer!

Together, talk about which school subjects could be more easily learned using associative strategies. (Students learning foreign languages, for example, perform twice as well when they use associative memory to learn vocabulary!) Make a goal to have one associative study session for that subject.

Rhymes
How many of us learned little school tid-bits using silly rhymes? Most adults are familiar with the rhymes:

"I" before "e" except after "c"

"Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492"

6 x 8=48, 6 x 6=36

When the rhymes are set to music, the memory association is even more powerful. Hundreds of students have learned to sing the 50 United States in alphabetical order, simply because the words were put to music in a way that capitalized on rhyming syllables.

You don't have to be a musical genius to memorize using music. Just take one of your favorite songs from the radio and change the words to include the key concepts you want to learn. It doesn't have to be pretty. After all, you can't get up and do a concert in the middle of a testing session at school. In fact, the sillier it is, the easier it will be to remember!

The activity for this section isn't a written one here on the computer! It is "independent study"! Use whatever song you were humming or singing in the shower this morning, and the odds are great that you'll remember whatever new words you put to it!

Patterns

Give children the following numbers to memorize. Allow them only one minute to look at the numbers. This should be difficult.

Older Child : 581215192226293336404347

Younger Child: 568911121415

Most of the things we try to memorize will seem very difficult to us unless we can fit the bits of information into a pattern in our head.

Tell children that there is a simple mathematical pattern to the way the digits are ordered. Ask them to try to find a pattern in the number. When the pattern is found, have students try to memorize the number again. The pattern is--
Older Student >>> add 3, add 4, add 3, add 4...
Younger Student >>> add 1, add 2, add 1, add 2...

Point out that when we look for patterns, the tasks become less intimidating and easier to master. This is true not only for numbers, but also for such things as history dates, verb conjugations, etc.

Chunking
Read the following numbers. Have children write the number immediately AFTER you have read it. Read the numbers slowly and only once. Most people will be successful up to the eight digit number. 2357 37859 247049 2105648 49273059
395840692 Explain that it is a proven fact that your mind can remember seven pieces of information at a time (Short Term Memory).

Ask "What happens when you are asked to remember a twelve digit number?" Give the number

354376908213

Most children will not be able to remember the number at first. Introduce the term "Chunking," and explain that it is easier to remember four groups of three (e.g., 345--376--908--213) than twelve individual numbers. This strategy simply needs lots of rehearsal, so make up different long numbers and try memorizing them with and without chunking. Can you see the difference?