Increasing Working Memory Skills In Students With Language Deficits

How Teachers can help students with Language Delays remember information..

Students with Language Deficits struggle with remembering, processing and organizing the information they hear: Primarily all the information they hear from teachers in the classroom. 

The mind of a language delayed student....... 

Imagine this!!.... If every time you heard a piece of information in a day you write it down on a sticky note. By the end of the day you may have 100 or more notes. If you don't put these notes in a category or place that means something to you then all you end up with is a bunch of disorganized and meaningless notes! That is how the mind of students with language delays function. It's not that they cannot write the information down; they just need the help in making the information useful and meaningful before moving on to the next "sticky note" in their mind.

YOU can help your students improve their memory recall by building some working memory boosters in your classroom: 

*Teach visualization skills-create a picture of what was just read or heard. 

**Connect emotions to the information- ask what it might have felt like to (i.e. be the news anchor in the middle of the hurricane). 
Have your child teach you- ask the child to teach the skill or what they have just learned to you.

*Suggest games that use visual memory- memorize a license plate of the car in front of you and recite it from memory and then say it again backwards. 

*Play Cards- Play UNO or Go Fish; kids have to keep the rules of the game in mind; and also has to remember what cards he has and which ones other people have played. 

*Make up category games- it's easier when things are "placed" in categories.

*Number your directions- begin sentences with words like.. "I need you to do these three things..."

*Help make connections- take what information the student already knows and build a bridge between the old and new information. 

Recommended Book List for Young Students

Through reading, you build a more solid foundation for communication. It is one of the most important tools we use every day to connect with each other. Whereas if you don’t read, you can’t even connect with the world and what people are talking about out there. 

Reading connects you with the world!!

Strategies for Helping Students with Language Impairments Take Tests

How can you help your child or students that have Language Learning Disabilities to take tests?

These students have a hard time remembering the information even when he has studied and may have trouble expressing what he knows (especially in essays). This is an issue that many students face when test taking. This can easily lead to the student developing a lot of anxiety and "shutting-down" academically.

The following Strategies can be Helpful:  

• Crazy phrases: If your child has to remember a list of items in order, such as the planets in the solar system, help him come up with a silly sentence using the first letter of each item on the list. The following is an example many teachers use to help students remember the nine planets in order: My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas. Otherwise known as: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
• Acronyms: When the order of the information does not matter, your child can take the first letters of each item on the list and try to form them into a word. For example, to help remember the systems of the body, the acronym “RED CRaNES” can be used:
  Reproductive
  Excretory
  Digestive
  Circulatory
  Respiratory
  a – (no system – place holder)
  Nervous Endocrine
  Skeletal
• Cartoons or pictures: If your child is a visual learner, it may help to make cartoons to illustrate concepts (e.g., history, science) or to draw small pictures to trigger his memory for vocabulary words.
• Word associations: You can help your child make connections to other information he knows by using the sounds or visual representations of words. For example, if he has to remember that the word “distinct” means “different or unmistakable,” you can help him find another word that sounds similar, such as “stink.” If something stinks, it is definitely different and unmistakable!

Kids Need Good Vocabulary Skills

In order for students to develop their literacy skills, they need a rich vocabulary acquired through direct instruction, exposure to words, and social interaction.

Teachers are introducing students to new vocabulary in the classroom, but parents should be doing that at home as well. Parents can be instrumental in helping extend the teacher’s vocabulary lessons at home when reading writing, or doing homework with their children.

This October month, target the word list below and use the words during your daily interaction with your child. There IS a connection between vocabulary development and your child’s literacy development.