Top 10 Auditory Working Memory Strategies for Students

Auditory working memory is the memory used to remember and work with information that you hear, but it's the information that does not have a lot of meaning. Home Books Buddy,AStoryforDyslexia ChildDecoded:UnlockingComplexIssuesinYourChild’sLearning,BehaviororAttention TheiPadRulesintheClassroom AboutDr.McEvoy TheMoxieBlog Contact Disclaimer SupportingLearningthroughEnergy,Determination&KnowHow PurchaseBooks Top10AuditoryWorkingMemoryStrategiesforStudents MyTop10AuditoryWorkingMemoryStrategies(forstudents) Trynottoforget Auditoryworkingmemoryisthememoryusedtorememberandworkwithinformationthatyouhear,butit’stheinformationthatdoesnothavealotofmeaning. Meaningfulinformation,suchasafunnystory,goestoyourverbalmemory.Itiseasiertorememberbecausethestorytiesitselftoothermemories,leadstovisualimages,ortriggersanemotion(afunoneforafunnystory). Auditoryworkingmemoryisfortheinformationthatdoesnothavemuchmeaningorconnection,suchasphonenumbers,foreignlanguage,stringsofnumbers,orevenpeople’snames. It’scalledauditoryWORKINGmemorywhenyouneedtoholdtheinformationonlineinyourheadwhileworkingwithit,suchassolvingamathprobleminyourhead.Someofushaveagoodauditoryworkingmemory. Somepeoplecanrememberphonenumberseasily,neverforgetaname,orcansolvecomplexmathproblemsintheirhead. Manyofuscan’tdoiteasilyandsomeofusarereallybadatit. Memoriesfade Whenachildhasaweakauditoryworkingmemory,itwillimpactseveralacademicskills. Inearlyreading,thechildmayhavetroublerememberingwhichsoundsgowithwhichletters.Frankly,that‘buh’goeswith‘b’and‘duh’goeswith‘d’isprettyrandom.Ifauditoryworkingmemoryisweak,linkingallthoseletterswithallthosesoundsistough. Youcanseehowthisweaknessisrelatedtodyslexia(thoughisnotquitetheentirestory). Spellingandwritingcanbeevenmoreaffected. Afewgradesup,thechildmaystrugglewithmemorizingmathfacts.Additionandsubtractionfactscanbehardenough,butmultiplicationfactscanbeparticularlytricky. Simplemathfacts,suchas2x2=4,canbe“seen”mentally.Butfewofuscan“see”that8x7=56. Wehavetomemorizethesefactsthatfeelratherrandomtoayoungchild. Thesefactsarestoredintheauditorymemory. Thenthereisworkingmathproblemsoutinyourhead.Iftheproblemiswrittendownandyoucanvisuallycheckthenumbers,itmaynotbeSObad. However,ifsomeoneisrattlingofafewnumbersandaproblemtobesolved,thosenumbersmaygoinoneearandouttheother. Learningnewwordscanbehard.Whenthechildhearsanewwordinscienceorhistory,thatnewwordisjusthardtoholdonto. SomememoriesfadeFAST!! Copyingfromtheboardcanbehardbecausethestudentcannotrememberalongstringofinformation.Thereisalotoflookingup,lookingdownandcopyingaword,thenlookinguptocheckthecopy,findthenextwordortwo,writethosedown. Becausethetaskissoarduous,thestudentreallycannotcomprehendwhatisbeingcopied. Later,thereareworseproblemswhentryingtotakenotesduringlectures.   Thestudenttypicallycannotlistenandwriteatthesametime,so ...notesjustdon’tgettaken.. .atleastwithanycompleteness. Followingdirectionscanbehard.Inearlygrades,ateacherhastokeepdirectionsshortandrepeatthemseveraltimestoget20-25youngkidsonthesamepage.Askidsmoveupingrades,teachersgivelongerdirections. Bymiddleschool,teachersarenotrepeatingdirectionoften. Ifthisiscombinedwithnewvocabulary,studentswithweakauditoryworkingmemoryareatadisadvantage. Learningaforeignlanguage(yeesh)canbearealstruggletothosewithapoorauditoryworkingmemory.Herecomesthislongstringofincomprehensiblesoundsthatapersonthenhastoholdintheirheadandtrytoconvertit(translate)tosomethingmeaningful. Iftheauditoryworkingmemoryisweak,thosesoundsaregonebeforeyougetpastthefirstfewsyllables. Asapersongetsolder,itbecomesmoreobviousthatrememberingsomeone’sname,rememberingphonenumbers,anythinginformationthatissomewhatrandomishard. Weaknessinauditoryworkingmemoryputsstumblingblocksinaperson’sday. Forachildinschool,thestumblingblocksareoccurringallday. Sohereare: Thetop10strategiesforsupportingauditoryworkingmemoryweaknessesinstudents: Wecancategorizetheseinafewways. Firstandforemost-providebackupfortheauditorymemory. AuditoryworkingmemoryisnottheONLYmemorywehave. Therearelotsofmemoriestouseasbackup. Visualmemory,motormemory,andverbalmemorycanallbeusedtosupporttheauditorymemory. Youcanalso“goaround”theweaknessbyusingalternativestrategies.   Multisensoryreadingprogramscansupportbothreadingandspellingskillsbyprovidingvisualandmotorcuesforthesoundsthatgowiththeletters.Theyalsoinstructinvisualpatternsforwordswhichhelpsbothreadingandspelling. Visualsupportscanbackuptheauditoryandverbalmemories. Charts,graphs,andtimelinescanbeusedtoshowpatternsintheverbalandauditoryinformation.Thiscanbecriticalforsupportinginformationgiveninlectures.Usesummarylistsandoutlinestodetailthe“mostimportantinformation”withparticularemphasisonnewvocabulary. Agoodoutlineofalecture(providedinadvanceofthelecture)cancanactasanorganizationalchartfortheinformation. EvenabulletedsummarylistwillletthestudentSEEwhatismostimportant. Informationthatisusuallystoredinauditorymemorycanbemovedtoverbalandvisualmemorywithsomecreativetactics.Forexample,therearemathbooksthatprovideamathstoryandvisualpictureformathfacts(e.g.,6x6=‘thirstysix’showstwotired6’smarchingthroughthedesserttoanoasiswith36writtenontop). Recopyinglecturenotesordevelopingwrittennotesforachapterinatextbookbuildsastrongvisualmotormemoryfortheinformation.Forexample,thestudenthasscribblednotesmadlytogetthelecturerontopaper,buthasshereally“heard”thelecture? Asadyslexiccollegestudentoncesaidtome,“Itgoesstraightfromtheprofessor’smouthtomyhand. Idon’tstarttoprocesswhatwassaiduntilIgohomeandre-copythenotes. Everyoneinclasswantstoborrowmynotesbecausetheyarevisuallybeautiful.” (Okay,shewasveryartisticpersonwhodidmakethenotesvisuallyorganizedandevencolorcoordinated.) Usevideostopairauditoryandverbalinformationdirectlywithvisualinformation.Thisgivessomevisualcontextfornewvocabulary. Forweakmathfacts,useacalculator.Thisletsthestudentfocusonlearningmathconceptswithoutbeingboggeddownbyerrorsandslowprocessingduetoweaknessesinmathfacts.Studentscantaketheircalculatorsintocollegeentranceexams,soitisnotadrawback. Ifindthatmathfactsslowlyimproveinkidsovertime(lotsoftime)anyway.Youcan’trushit,soaccommodateit. Usewrittendirectionsandwrittenstepstosupportaweakmemoryfornoveldirections.Withwrittendirections,achildcanworksequentiallythroughthetaskwithoutworryingaboutwhattheyforgot. Previewnewvocabulary.Ifanewscienceunitwillbepresentedintwodaysoranewchapterinhistory,givethechildalistofnewvocabularywordstoseeandhearthempronounced.Discussthewordsabituntilthememoryismoreofaverbalmemorythansimplyanauditoryone. Astructuredclassroomwithaconsistentdailyroutinereducedtheneedforextrainstructionsanddirections. Mnemonics-Therearereasonsthatadvertisersusemnemonicsfortelephonenumbers(e.g.,1-800-CALL-NOW).Alotofusstrugglewithauditorymemoryweaknessandweneedtomaketheinformationmoremeaningful. Therearemnemonicsforeverything,fromtheWivesofHenryVIIItothe12cranialnerves.Youcangooglethem. Andwhenallelsefails,thestudentwillneedtohaveinformationrepeatedtohim. Hemightthenbeaskedtorepeatbackkeyinformationorinstructionstoensuretheyhaveprocessedit. Adultswithauditoryworkingmemoryweaknessescantellyouthatsomedaysareworsethanothers. Noise,fatigue,hungerandgeneraloverloadwillmakerecallworse. Buttherewillbemomentswhenachildisfreshandexcitedforatask. Thenthosefacts,sounds,orwordsjustcomemoreeasily. Acceptthatunevenness,takebreakswhenneeded,thenkeepplugging. Accommodationsintheclassroom(andathome)willbeessential,butwiththerightsupports,auditoryworkingmemoryweaknessescanbemanaged. 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