Working memory
How much a child can hold in mind while doing something with it — a three-part instruction, a sentence while spelling it, a sum carried between steps.
Why working memory matters.
Weak working memory looks exactly like not listening, and it is punished as such more often than it is identified. A child who follows the first part of an instruction and then stops has usually not ignored you; the rest has genuinely gone.
Nearly everything that helps involves reducing what has to be held rather than training the capacity. Write the steps down, give one instruction at a time, and let them refer back. Those are free and they work immediately.
Questions that get a real answer
- How many steps can my child hold reliably?
- What is written down for them instead of spoken?
- Is the difficulty understanding, or holding on to it?
Ask these of anyone, including us. What you are listening for is not the right answer — it is whether the answer is specific enough to be wrong.
Terms that usually turn up alongside it.
AAC
Any way of communicating that supplements or replaces speech — signs, picture cards, a speech-generating app
GlossaryABA
A framework for teaching skills by breaking them into steps, prompting, reinforcing and measuring. Widely
GlossaryAccess arrangements
Adjustments a school makes so a child can show what they know — extra time, a reader, a separate room. They
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