How to help a gifted child with almost photographic memory

[mathnerd]

My son who is almost 6 is very bright (tested as gifted) and has an elephantine memory when it comes to remembering things and details (I am like that, so it runs in the family?). For him remembering and recalling stuff is great fun. Right now, the only memory work he does is with his piano pieces - he gets assigned a few piano music pieces each week by his teacher and the expectation is to practice for a few weeks and memorize atleast one of them in that timeframe - but, what happens is that he memorizes every single piece by day 2 of playing them and plays from memory without his book from day 3 onwards. He can recall 100+ piano music pieces and play them from memory (admittedly, these are all small pieces of 8-32 measures each). He remembers road signs on roads that we do not travel through frequently (for e.g. we went to the doctor's office 4 months ago and last week he could tell me exactly which turn to take and how to get there). He also remembers in great detail anything he watches on TV though he only watches TV once a week. He is able to recite poetry easily and to recall every single friend's birthday, phone number, address etc.

I want to help him with this skill. I want to do memory work and challenge him to improve his retention/recall so that he can get even better. I want to do it on a regular basis and make it fun.

I have no clue where to start and how to go about it. Would poetry and math facts memorization be a good start?

[Incognito]

OOh, how fun! I'd go to the library, find a nice book of children's poetry (maybe Mary Ann Hobermann) and start there. Assuming you don't want to use the Bible, that is. If so, I'd find a nice chapter in the NT somewhere to start with.

 

We do memory work in the AM with breakfast. Simply Charlotte Mason has a nice way to do it (which we don't do yet, but someday!).

[Dmmetler]

One thing to keep in mind (this is as someone who has a near eidetic auditory memory-but I can also remember things I read because as I read them, I "hear" them). It's not just remembering-it's being able to recall the correct piece of information later efficiently. If you memorize math facts in sequence, and can ONLY pull it up in that sequence, it's not all that helpful. That's me in geography. So make sure he has opportunities to mix it up a bit, and to keep things out of sequence.

 

Spelling bees, history bees, Geography bees, Jeopardy, anything involving recall of factoids--all those are wonderful for someone with an eidetic memory, but study needs to be different because usually the advice is NOT to try to memorize the entire list. When you have an eidetic memory, you really DO want to memorize both the rules, but also honestly memorize the lists, because you can.

 

Another thing to consider-in my case, at least, it can actually be distracting-if someone happens to say a few words in sequence that occurred in that sequence in a book, my brain will start retelling the book! There are some social skills involved, too-otherwise, it's really easy to end up coming off like a "Know it all" when all you're doing is saying what has popped to the top of your brain.

 

When you get into serious writing (or when he starts composing music) teach him to check for plagiarism. It is EXTREMELY easy to end up plagiarizing when you don't even realize it, because all of a sudden the perfect wording or pattern falls into your brain, without triggering "Oh, I read that in..... six years ago!". Googling those perfect phrases can really help to avoid embarrassment or worse later. It's harder with music-usually the best bet is to have a trusted friend who will tell you "Uh, isn't that part of Mozart's 6th piano concerto?"

[happypamama]

When you get into serious writing (or when he starts composing music) teach him to check for plagiarism. It is EXTREMELY easy to end up plagiarizing when you don't even realize it, because all of a sudden the perfect wording or pattern falls into your brain, without triggering "Oh, I read that in..... six years ago!". Googling those perfect phrases can really help to avoid embarrassment or worse later. It's harder with music-usually the best bet is to have a trusted friend who will tell you "Uh, isn't that part of Mozart's 6th piano concerto?"

 

Oh, I so understand that one -- btdt! Also, it's really hard to do a summary -- who wants to summarize when you can just remember the whole darn thing?

[Joshin]

First, does he have a photographic, eidetic or just a really good memory? Those with eidetic memories remember auditory things, smells, or visual things, sometimes all three, and sometimes along with written. I have a photographic memory but not an eidetic memory. My main issue in school was I remembered things I read word for word, but lectures and such didn't stick. Not a big deal until college, when 2/3 of the info was provided via lecturing. I learned to take really good notes. After writing the lecture down, I remembered it and didn't need my notes anymore. As he gets older, I would really focus on note taking skills unless he also has an auditory memory.

 

I second the plagiarism warning. I'm a writer, and I have to watch for it constantly. As of yet (knock on wood!) I've always caught slip-ups before anything was published, but I live in fear of the day I miss something and get called out.

[raptor_dad]

First, does he have a photographic, eidetic or just a really good memory? Those with eidetic memories remember auditory things, smells, or visual things, sometimes all three, and sometimes along with written. I have a photographic memory but not an eidetic memory. My main issue in school was I remembered things I read word for word, but lectures and such didn't stick.

 

 

I agree with this. I have a great visual memory. In high school I could remember material by visualizing the textbook page it was on. Now, pushing 40yo I can still retrieve some facts in the same way. I have a very good memory overall but some modalities are stronger than others.

 

More generally, I would try to have your child memorize facts as well as poetry. Geography is an easy one... countries, capitals, mountains, deserts, etc. Historical events could also be good... Presidents, Kings, etc. Science is harder but phyla of animals and plants come to mind. Overall, I would read aloud from fact and conceptually dense materials to them and let things stick. For instance I am reading various of Asimov's "How Did We Find Out" series to my kindergartener and it is surprising how much sticks. Likewise with the "Golden History of the World" and the Usborne "Encyclopedia of World History".

 

Good Luck,

-chris

[mathnerd]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I had just thought that my child had a really good memory, but not about which areas were stronger than others. Now that I think of it, he remembers things that were read to him or related to him (TV, audio books, songs/music etc) a lot better than when he reads them himself (maybe reading comprehension is not that great yet). He is also great in remembering smells, auditory and visual things.

I looked up Mary Ann Hobermann poems and they sound like fun. I am also picking up some poetry anthologies for kids. I had not thought about Geography facts and Historical events (even memorizing all the president names).

Thanks again and I will keep in mind the plagiarism issue when the time comes, as I have btdt too.

[Karen in CO]

I suggest that you start working on summarizing and retelling. My dd has a near perfect memory for anything she reads or hears, but gets mightily frustrated trying to pick out what is important from all of the details. She hates summarizing although she can tell you Peter Pan almost word-for-word. It has taken a lot of work to help her see what details are important. Retelling stories in her own words has helped with this.

 

She loves Latin because to her it is both an exercise for her memory and a puzzle to get the translations smooth.