Working memory-how to work on it?

[FrogMom5]

Can someone link or point me to threads on how to work on working memory? I thought I remembered reading about this topic here on this board but, after several searches, I haven't been able to find any threads.

Thanks for your help.

Denise

[stephanie]

:lurk5:

[LaughingCat]

I find the best way to search for multi word things like that is to use google and put site:welltrainedmind.com after the search words.

 

Here's a few links that come up when I do that:

Working Memory--resources?

 

Improving Working Memory

 

Significance of Low Working Memory

 

Also try searching the user yllek along with the word memory for a bunch of interesting posts.

[eoffg]

Denise, we have 3 different cognitive thinking processes, Auditory, Visual and Spacial. Each of which have their own working memory.

But they generally work together in different combinations of the 3.

So that to 'work on working memory', it really needs to begin with identifying which working memory/ies are to be worked on?

[FrogMom5]

Thanks for the tip on how to better search and the links, llolly. As for the working memory, I think we need visual and auditory. Ds has done VT and Auditory Training-lots. Still, he recently tested very low in working memory and processing on an IQ test. I want to help him bring those up as much as I can before he heads off to college in 2 yrs.

 

I know it's late in the game. We worked on his sensory and health issues for many yrs. And then, I think I was just exhausted and overwhelmed. Well, in the span of 2 yrs., we adopted, had a baby and moved. That's when we stopped doing anything. I just wanted him to live a "normal" life-no dr. appts., therapies, etc. Maybe I wanted to live that life, too.

 

Anyway, ds is doing well but, he works so much harder than he should to get his work done. He has to work very hard to memorize terms (bio., chem.), names, dates and so forth. He's pretty good at math but it does take him longer than average. He is one of those really smart kids who doesn't know the date of Christmas, kwim? He carries his phone number and address w/him b/c he can't always remember them correctly.

 

Thank you all for your help. You ladies are wonderful.

Denise

[LaughingCat]

For long term memory (like phone #'s or school facts) I think doing something like Linguasystems No Glamour Memory (which is by the same author as their EF books which have gotten good reviews on this board) . This book and their other on memory are about "techniques" to remember facts - a fascinating book on this subject (by a journalist who became a memory contest winner) is "Moonwalking with Einstein".

 

I'm not sure I completely buy that doing these kinds of techniques helps with the kind of working memory where you're trying to hold several numbers in your head while you manipulate them or a word while you manipulate the phonics - however I'm not sure what does either - right now with DD9 I'm mostly just working on practice with remembering series of numbers and practice actually doing the manipulations (or phonics manipulations). She has less trouble remembering a series of "meaningful" items (words/directions) so I suspect she is already using some kind of "technique" for those (although it only gets her a bit further -which is why we'll be going through the No Glamour Memory this school year).

Edited August 24, 2012 by LaughingCat2

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[LaughingCat]

See, it's just as I said above :lol:

Also try searching the user yllek along with the word memory for a bunch of interesting posts.

yllek, your posts never cease to give me more food for thought on memory - I think I even need to give myself a reminder every couple months to go back through them to see were I've gotten off track in my thinking (although sad to say, sometimes I find my own posts and see where I've lost some crucial insight I once had :D )

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[FrogMom5]

Wow! You all are great. This info. is wonderful. I haven't been able to finish reading everything, we're preparing for the possibility of hurricane Isaac, but I have read most of it. Many of the techniques described here will help my younger ds too.

 

I especially want to check into the ability to move info. between long and short-term memory. I think that may be a piece that I've been missing.

 

yllek, if you don't mind, what is n-back and dual n-back exercises? Is it the letter/digit span work you did w/your ds?

 

The way the brain works is endlessly fascinating to me. If I find anything new during my searches, I'll post it. Thanks for all the great info.

Denise

[LaughingCat]

n-back is when you have to remember the number/symbol that was <some number> back from now.

 

So if you're using cards, and are doing 1 back - the first card is a 3, the 2nd card is a 4, you have to say the 3 not the 4, then when a 2 is put on top of the 4, you have to say 4 not 2.

[stephanie]

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but I ordered a book called, Mapping Inner Space. It teaches how to make visual "maps" in order to help organize thoughts and commit to memory. I can't wait to do it with my kids! We're going to use this method through this entire year with as many of our subjects as we can.

 

I ordered the book on Amazon...http://www.amazon.com/Mapping-Inner-Space-Learning-Teaching/dp/1569761388

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Edited November 21, 2012 by Doodler

[LaughingCat]

Well, in the testing situation, our NP told ds a story and asked ds to tell him what he remembered of it. Ds could retell it practically verbatim. But then the NP told another story (it wasn't clear to me whether there was a new story and then a second story for a total of three stories, or whether there were just two stories in total), let some time pass and asked ds for details about the first story (or was it the second?). And that is where ds gave a scrambled response.

 

This description (just as written - I understand that may not be how it actually was) sounds to me more like other descriptions of kids where they can tell the whole story but can't pull out bits/details of the story separately. The test added another parameter of a 2nd story - but I personally would feel it wasn't very useful since there was no test to see that my child could actually pull out details first (as compared to a retell) before adding complicating factors.

[lcook]

Ds is so interesting to me, because he acquires vocabulary easily. He has a language disorder, but he loves words. He likes playing around with homophones and will sit and think about the imagery behind the metaphors in idioms. He plays the game that you mentioned on his own, finding words within words. He yells out in excitement when he encounters new words with roots that he has learned, or he tries to make his own words by putting roots together. He asks me questions about how words are derived that has me hunting for stories about etymology. He loves parsing and diagramming, and sometimes on his own, parses sentences that he encounters. He just interacts with words in a deep and rich way, certainly beyond anything that I would expect of a seven-year-old boy.

 

Wow - this is so my DS. He has a language processing disorder. Yet, our SLP played a homophone game with him and he was quite good. How can this be? He loves to try and make up jokes that have some sort of word play. However, the words he uses in everyday language are often not at all what you would expect. For example, we were camping and he was swatting the flies in our camper. When my husband walked in he said "Dad, I spanked a bunch of flies today". He wasn't trying to be funny...this was just his word choice. Not sure, if it was a word retrieval problem (which he has a lot of difficulty with) and he just substituted something similar or if it was just the word that came to mind.

 

yllek- I would love to understand more about why your NP suggested V&V. I took the V&V training and not sure how it will help my son. I do know that he can visualize. He produces some really good narrations (with enough detail that it can't come from auditory memory). However, he seems to be quite inconsistant. I wonder if sometimes he relies to much on auditory memory and isn't in the habit of using his visualization. Maybe, the structure of V&V will help him to organize his visualizations better and make it more habitual? We, too, have worked on digit spans. I have BrainBuilder and have used it with him. We didn't do this for long enough to get any result. Like you mentioned I heard it can take a while with digit spans to get good results. I've heard of another mom who was dedicated to digit spans and she saw all kinds of progress with her son as his digit span scores increased.

 

We did get good gains in memory, processing speed and word retrieval doing Interactive Metronome. It was one of the best interventions we have done to date. I believe much of the success was in the way it was delivered by our SLP. We are going to start another round where he will be performing it on his own and I can't wait to see if we make more progress with memory and word retrieval.

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