Massaging and stimulating this part of the brain where memory recall is located is important and research shows that it develops in the early years.
So how can we foster memory recall as parents and educators?
Reading to children on a daily basis.
Research indicates that a child who is read to everyday has an increased memory bank of words than children who are read to occasionally.
If your child is in care, I can guarantee you they have had multiple books throughout their day, so their word memory is being filled.
Do you get asked to read the same book over and over again?
Haha, I can hear your moans and your eye rolling from here.
Children ask for the same book because it is familiar to them and it engages their memory recall.
They are listening to you read and are thinking about what will happen next, this is a pre-reading skill, don’t skip a page or change the words, cause they will catch you out. Sound familiar?
How else can we stimulate the memory muscle?
Another way to stimulate the memory recall is to use rhymes and sing in the classroom and at home.
Let’s unpack that
· Firstly, we are making fun and memorable learning experiences, we all know that children will always be up for fun.
· We are teaching language and boosting vocabulary.
· We are assisting with speech and communication skills by strengthening the mouth and tongue muscles.
· We are helping them distinguish sounds and phonics along with rhythm and showing them how to pronounce words.
· They are repetitive, which children love and they will often ask you to repeat them over and over again.
· We are also encouraging them to listen so they can master the words, rhythm, volume and inflection.
Would you believe that we are also exposing children to early math concepts by reading and saying rhymes, children are practicing counting, creating patterns, sequencing and ordering. Bonus!
So why not introduce some new books and rhymes into your daily routines and give you child the gift of language through fun and playfulness, strengthening their memory recall muscle along the way.