Working Memory -- resources?

[jujsky]

What resources will help with working memory? I have no idea how to improve that for DS. Drill & kill doesn't work for him.

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Edited November 20, 2012 by yllek

[jujsky]

Thank you -- that helps a lot! My DS sounds a lot like yours. I've noticed lately that my DS seems to retain more information if he's doing something else (drawing while I'm reading his history or literature lesson, for example). It's great to hear such a positive anecdote about those exercises.

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[Guest]

This is VinNY's find. She's mentioned it a few times on the board. (BTW, IIRC, VinNY's ds also has a diagnosis of DCD, so now, as far as a I know, there are four fairly regular posters on this board whose children share this diagnosis—my kid included.) I've never used it or seen it, but from the description on the site, this workbook sounds like the closest thing that I've seen to the working memory exercises that our SLP assigned for my ds.

http://www.achievepublications.com/auditorysequentialmemory.html

 

Our exercises were very effective for remediating ds's working memory issues. In a year, he went from something close to a 3yo's working memory (when he was 6) to working memory scores that are slightly higher than most same-age peers.

 

My ds is also not someone who tolerates "drill and kill." I've described my ds several times on this board—highly resistant to repetition, requires novelty in order to engage, needs games or humor or personal interest in order to focus. Still, these exercises are short, requiring only a few minutes. I made them somewhat tolerable for my ds by using funny voices, allowing him to move about (often on a hippity-hop, a Plasma Car, or a balance board), and giving him access to toys and fidgets. This last bit is actually therapeutic on some level. His SLP believed that therapy should be conducted in a distracting, "real-life" environment. She wanted her clients to be in situations where they had various stimuli competing for their attention (to a degree), while they were doing specific processing tasks. Over time, she believed, as their processing improved, they would be better able to self-regulate. This bore out in my ds's case. Toward the end of therapy, she would put a Nintendo DS in my son's hands at the start of a session, let him get totally engrossed in highly involved video games, then start the therapy sessions. He would sometimes do his backward digit spans perfectly while continuing to play. Other times, he would, on his own and without being prompted, close the DS so he could concentrate on the tasks she was asking him. When he first went to her office, he would be distracted by simple toys and not be able to stop playing with them. This newly acquired self-regulation has definitely crossed over into his everyday behavior as well.

 

Anyway, I mention all that just as another layer to consider while you tackle the working memory tasks. Obviously, if the toy (we used Legos most often here) was so distracting that the working memory exercises weren't getting done, I would have to be the regulation that my son didn't have, but otherwise, getting a chance to "play" a bit while doing the exercises meant that he didn't complain too much about doing them. Perhaps that might help.

 

This is very interesting for me too! Thank you! I had never thought about the distractions in that way. It makes a lot of sense. Now off to continue looking at the program you linked :).

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[Guest]

Oh good! I do hope this is something useful for people. It's been so frustrating to try to describe the working memory program that we did, but not have any concrete resources to which to direct people. I know that this program has been helpful for VinNY's dc. Hopefully, she'll see this and chime in.

 

yllek, I just saw both me and my husband in what I heard and watched in the videos. We both have an exceptionally strong visual memory (as does Adrian) but our auditory memory has always been lacking. I always had to go home and study on my own in order to reach the conceptual understanding I desired or memorize information for history, geography etc. so that I could keep my high grades. Math was not an issue as it was visual enough in class but subjects like history and science (just as was mentioned in the video) were an issue in class and I did everything in my power to stay focused. Anyway, I just hit the order button for the Auditory Sequential Memory Instructional Workbook. I think this is what Adrian really needs right now and I could use it with Malcolm also. I will then get the Auditory Memory In Context Instructional Workbook after we are done. I think they will both work well with WWE since that is where Adrian's struggle with it stems, I think. The added bonus was that their shipping was reasonable too. Thanks again :)!

[VinNY]

HI! I have always been jealous of yllek's SLP!

Anyway, my dtr is dyspraxic, 72 IQ , language impaired and very low working memory (auditory and visual). I use this book from Achieve Publications, Earobics and her VT perceptual Skills computer program. She is taking a break from the latter while we do a second round of Earobics for the auditory memory. I also use the digits in the book to quiz my dtr on backward digit spans. In addition, I use the words to quiz my dtr on spelling, spelling backwards and to also spell it the funny alphabet way that our COVD DR. taught us. For example spell c-a-t with the funny alphabet (use the next letter in the alphabet..d-b-u. This supposedly helps build visual memory.) In addition, I have her with a special ed teacher, OT and SLP with the public school system. I needed to because everyday was Ground Hog's Day with her.

 

My dtr will not be able to be totally remediated, my aim (with advice from the neuropsych) is to just progress. I have find mneumonics helpful (O-G) as well as the funny stories that help teach your child the multiplication tables.

 

My dtr is at a 5 digit span, 5 letter span, 4 word span. She can take dicatation through Apples and Pears Spelling. More importantly, her behavior in a 4th grade classroom (where she is working at a 2nd grade level) is wonderful. Even though she is still scoring low (the demands in testing increases each year) she is able to attend more and make continual progress.

 

The Achieve book recommends to present all three aspects at each session (number, letter, and words) allowing 3-5 minutes of instruction for each aspect at least 2-3x a week. So it is not too labor intensive on Mom's part.

 

HTH, V

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[lcook]

Yay, VinNY, you showed up! I was going to pm you if you didn't catch this thread by this evening. :D

 

I think I may have to try the funny alphabet strategy! Ds has strong phonemic awareness, but I think that he over-relies on that skill when spelling. I suspect that he is strong VSL and needs to use his visual memory more, but, as contradictory as this sounds, he also has visual processing issues so that his visual memory is probably weak. The irony that surrounds this kid smacks me in the face everyday. He has strong language scores, yet he has a language processing disorder. He has strong auditory processing sub-skill scores, yet he had abysmally low auditory working memory. I'm almost certain this kid is a VSL (I'll know with more certainty when the learning style survey book that Michele recommended arrives at my door), but he has visual processing deficits. :tongue_smilie: No wonder traditional instructional approaches have been a mess over here.

 

Oh my goodness, Yllek. Every time I read your posts you describe my son. The conundrum that is my son. I've always told my husband that my son's brain is wired for visual learning, but his visual processing skills are so poor he can't get the info in properly. He has the most creative mind and can make up these great stories that I know he is visualizing in his head. Alas, he can't follow words on a page or remember a sight word after months of seeing it or even remember the location of a continent on a map. He has a language processing disorder (diagnosed and clearly present). However, he is so witty and blows me away with some of his understanding of higher order thinking. He can also use some amazing vocabulary words in the right context....but, try and teach him one latin word, repeating it daily and he can't remember it (after months of hearing it). Sprinkle in his auditory processing deficits, memory problems, slow processing speed, motor issues and you get a completely unorganized brain that shows sparks of brilliance, but overall a teaching impossibility. He has absolutely no learning anchor. BUT, neigbors and friends can carry on a great conversation with him and thus often say "I don't see any problems."

 

Its no wonder his individual therapists can't get a handle on him. The vision therapist wants to rely on his auditory gate for an anchor, his SLPs have tried to rely on the visual and meanwhile he makes no progress. I'm just now finally able to get a better idea of what is going on.

 

I'm going to check out the Achieve memory program you recommend. I've actually just started a new direction with his therapy. We are now seeing an SLP who is also a vision therapist. After a year of vision therapy and no progress I knew I had to look in another direction. She is confident she can rewire my son's brain (time will tell). Anyway, she has indicated that one of the big areas to address before we make much progress is his visual memory. I'm a little concerned about this because I've read that memory improvement can take months of work before seeing any improvement. I'm hoping that this doesn't hold him back. Fortunately, he has always enjoyed any games that we play that work on memory. We were doing all sorts of digit spans with a computer program that I have. I think I may take that out again. It only works on digits though and just a quick look at Achieve I see that letters and words are important as well....I guess I'm off to do more research......

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[sixpence1978]

Ds has strong phonemic awareness, but I think that he over-relies on that skill when spelling. I suspect that he is strong VSL and needs to use his visual memory more, but, as contradictory as this sounds, he also has visual processing issues so that his visual memory is probably weak. The irony that surrounds this kid smacks me in the face everyday. He has strong language scores, yet he has a language processing disorder. He has strong auditory processing sub-skill scores, yet he had abysmally low auditory working memory. I'm almost certain this kid is a VSL (I'll know with more certainty when the learning style survey book that Michele recommended arrives at my door), but he has visual processing deficits. :tongue_smilie: No wonder traditional instructional approaches have been a mess over here.

 

yylek,

I always love reading all your posts because my DD also follows a lot of the same signs. She's very strong with phonemic awareness as well. She tested gifted in her verbal learning scores, yet struggles with word retrieval. Her vision scores post VT are all well above where she should be, but she still processes funny. If her working memory is overloaded, she can do all sorts of strange things. She once did a crossword puzzle and nearly every letter was written backwards. And her working memory is definitely her downfall.

[lcook]

Hi yllek - Yes, the brain plasticity is what gets me so excited. I know that we are finally learning how to change the brains pathways and this is why vision therapy and others like it are so successful. And I'm very excited to hear that your memory work only took a couple of months to see improvement. We were with a neuro group years ago that believed increasing the memory is key in learning challenged kids. However, as I stated before, the improvements in memory were often only seen aft 6 or more months and this was with practice 5 days a week (twice a day). I wonder if it is because they only used digits as their memory work and not letters and words. I'm assuming you used more than digits??

 

I would love to hear more about what you did in vision therapy. We were with a highly recommended vision therapist for a year. We had daily homework (on weekends) and when my son retook the annual test. He showed NO improvements. I went home and cried. It was so disheartening...although not surprising since we had yet to see any jumps in any other learning. The thing is I know without a doubt my son's greatest weakness is his visual processing skills. He NEEDS vision therapy. However, it is obvious that the visual processing help he was getting with this Dr didn't work. We spent a lot of time on primitive reflexes (which he just could not get) and directionality (he can finally tell us where his right and left hand is). This is all we truly worked on (well we had just started working on some of his visual spacial issues which was not going well at all). We spent very little time on strengthening the eye muscles, visual tracking and visual memory. Our current SLP who is also a vision therapist says that all these visual gathering skills must be worked first. We just started with her. She is certainly unique and I love how she does a lot of research on brain plasticity. BUT - every child is unique and only time will tell.

 

We spent two years with two different OTs and the only thing my son learned is how to form the number 5. :001_huh: I'm not kidding! I now believe it is because his visual processing skills are sooo poor. But, the OT kept telling me that he is a visual learner and I kept thinking then why can't he remember where Antartica is on the map.

 

Anyway, I would love to hear more about what sort of vision therapy exercises you did with your son and what sort of visual memory exercises did you use.

 

Thanks for sticking around and providing so much input on the success that you had with your son.

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[houseofkids&pets]

I was reading reviews of this book about working memory http://amazon.com/working-memory-learning-practical-teachers/dp/1412936136/ref=cm_cr_pr_p .

 

Has anyone read this book? Just trying to figure out which books to add to our own personal library and I am running out of funds:).

[VinNY]

I am going to look for this book in the library. Thanks!

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[houseofkids&pets]

Yes, I noticed that the book did have a couple of chapters on classroom accomodations. I actually am hsing youngest ds with a mixed learning disability, but oldest ds (autism) is in ps. I was hoping that maybe this book might give me strategies that I could use with both boys. I am trying to narrow down my purchases to items that are actually worth the money!! Ds is starting to question why we seem to be getting a daily book delivery lately. Darn mail truck is too loud. He hears it coming to our neighborhood.

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[houseofkids&pets]

Thanks yllek! Now I need to find time to read over everything:tongue_smilie:.

[ElizabethB]

Many of my students seemed helped by oral spelling.

 

Also, I finally finished reading "How the Brain Learns" by David Sousa. The only thing he mentioned specifically for improving working memory was piano lessons. People who took piano/keyboard lessons for a while had statistically significant gains in working memory. (p. 230, 4th Edition)

 

Also, annoyingly (OT but related to the book) he never mentioned why the font is mainly blue with some green font. Very annoying. He had a section where he had a "Mr. Green" and a "Mr. Blue" just to spite curious readers like me. (p. 129)

 

I do recommend the book, however.

[CanaryMelody]

This is VinNY's find. She's mentioned it a few times on the board. (BTW, IIRC, VinNY's ds also has a diagnosis of DCD, so now, as far as a I know, there are four fairly regular posters on this board whose children share this diagnosis—my kid included.) I've never used it or seen it, but from the description on the site, this workbook sounds like the closest thing that I've seen to the working memory exercises that our SLP assigned for my ds.

http://www.achievepublications.com/auditorysequentialmemory.html

 

Our exercises were very effective for remediating ds's working memory issues. In a year, he went from something close to a 3yo's working memory (when he was 6) to working memory scores that are slightly higher than most same-age peers. [sNIP]

 

I had posted my own thread when someone pointed me to this one. I'm still learning how the working memory works but wanted to ask a quick question. My 13yo's memory issues seem related mostly to when she reads things. She says that it is like a block comes down and no information sticks. She has ADHD but no other specific LDs. Testing showed short term memory issues. Like the OP, drill and kill doesn't work. Would this type of exercises that you linked to help?

 

Is this something I can do on my own or is it better to seek some kind of specialist?

 

Thanks!

[peacefully]

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Edited November 20, 2012 by yllek

[ElizabethB]

The book "How the Brain Learns" by Sousa did have one more thing about working memory, from page 39:

 

Besides oxygen, brain cells also need glucose for fuel. Fruit is an excellent source of glucose…. The chart below shows how just 50 grams of glucose increased long-term memory recall in a group of young adults by 35 percent and recall from working memory by over 20 percent.

[CanaryMelody]

Thank you for your thoughts, yllek. From the last evaluation she had 5 years ago, she had average reading comprehension skills and it appeared all other processing issues were normal. Only short-term memory was deficient. Which I have been reading is pretty common with ADHD.

 

She also has memory issues with really anything else... auditory, visual, etc. We make liberal use of checklists to keep her remembering things and focused. I'd like to try the workbook you linked to but I am wondering if this helps with memory in general (things that are read or seen not just auditory)? What sort of specialist helps with working memory deficits?

 

The book "How the Brain Learns" by Sousa did have one more thing about working memory, from page 39:

 

Besides oxygen, brain cells also need glucose for fuel. Fruit is an excellent source of glucose…. The chart below shows how just 50 grams of glucose increased long-term memory recall in a group of young adults by 35 percent and recall from working memory by over 20 percent.

 

Interesting! Thanks! Now I'm curious what other nutrients/supplements could potentially help improve working memory. (off to google) :001_smile:

 

 

(Sorry OP for hijacking your thread.)

[ElizabethB]

Interesting! Thanks! Now I'm curious what other nutrients/supplements could potentially help improve working memory. (off to google) :001_smile:

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The fruit was time sensitive...you should get the book for specifics, there were a lot of helpful ideas. From what I recall, the glucose kicked in after 5 minutes but the effects were limited to 20 or 30 minutes.

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