Do you struggle to get your child to remember things?

Do you hear your child often saying, “I forgot”?

Does your child struggle to remember things taught in school?

Don’t worry. You can take steps to strengthen your child's memory. A better memory will help your child’s performing better in school.

In many ways memory is also a skill. You can train it, sharpen it and boost it, just like any other skill.

In most cases a poor memory is just an untrained or underutilized memory.

After some training you will notice that your child will recall lessons from school better and retain information in social situations more easily. The key is to challenge your child’s memory regularly. You can incorporate fun and interesting exercises into your daily routine to make sure your child flexes her memory muscles and puts them to work.

Here are through some simple memory exercises to boost your child’s memory.

Quick Recall Games

Quick recall games are excellent ways to simultaneously test and train memory skills in small children. Hold a picture in front of your child for a few seconds. Hide it and the kid to describe the image.

You could also ask specific questions from the picture like – How many people were there in the picture?

What was the color of the wall behind the people?

Award points to make the game more fun. You can also play this game with a group of kids.

Variations to this game are only limited by your imagination. For instance, when you are in a restaurant you could ask the child to close her eyes and answer questions like – How many people are in the table next to ours? How many people in the restaurant are wearing red shirts?

Of course, give the child a few minutes to observe before asking these questions.

Word Games

A variety of word games can be used to improve memory skills. You could ask the child to recall words from a list. Or you could ask the child to put words back into a given sequence.   Word games can also help improve vocabulary.

Word games using place names is a fun way to exercise your memory. Start off by saying any place name. Then, ask your child to say the name of a place starting with the last letter of the place you just said.  For example, if you said “Dallas”, your child could respond with “Siberia”.  Your response to that could be “Atlanta” and so on.

These games can turn boring car rides into fun interactive events.  In fact, you can use these games anywhere and anytime your child is feeling bored or distracted.

Storytelling

Ask your child to tell you the story of a movie she saw recently.   This taps into the fun memory of a recent event, forcing your child to recall specific facts.

You could also quiz your child about specific aspects of the story. What was the name of the clown? How many dogs came rushing out at him?

You get the idea. Basically, you want to figure out different ways to help your child put their memory to good use again and again, in different scenarios.

Recalling Daily Events

Ask your child about what they did in school everyday. This forces her to recall events. If your child is not very forthcoming about the events of the day, just ask specific pointed questions. Who did you sit by at lunch? Who did you play with in recess?

This game also encourages your child to pay attention to events and activities during the course of the day. Over time this becomes subconscious with no effort at all.

The goal is to build a better memory with better recall of events and facts. These simple fun exercises and games incorporated into daily activities can help boost your child’s memory.