Improve Memory in Kids With Disabilities
Teaching Special Needs Students Techniques to Remember Lessons
Nov 2, 2009
Some students with disabilities will have trouble remembering lessons. Their struggles with organization, effective note taking, and retention of academic content will severely affect their abilities to succeed in the regular classroom. Teachers can improve the performance of a student with disabilities by teaching some important memory techniques and strategies. By using these helpful tips, kids with disabilities can independently enhance their memories and improve schoolwork.
Memory Techniques and Strategies for Special Needs Students
Incorporating memory techniques will help improve overall memory performance and increase the grades of children with special needs. There are many ways that teachers can help students remember information. But, eventually, the kids will need to learn some of these memory techniques so that they can study and learn effectively on their own. Teachers can encourage these students to use pictures, mnemonic devices, and effective note taking in order to remember lessons better.
Using Pictures and Visuals to Remember Lessons
When teaching students about various facts, it will be helpful to use visuals so that kids with special needs will remember them. It is particularly effective to use things like coins to teach counting and adding, pizza visuals to help with fractions, and flash cards with pictures on them to help with spelling and vocabulary words.
Having students draw a picture of a favorite scene of a story will help with their comprehension, and as a result, kids will remember the story better. The picture can be kept in a journal and later retrieved to help a child with special needs to recall the story during a review.
Mnemonic Devices for Memory Retention
Mnemonics such as rhyming phrases, keywords, and acrostics will help disabled children memorize and learn lists or the order of steps to solve problems. There are many effective mnemonic devices used today in the classroom to remember dates in history, order of math operation, and grammar rules.
When teachers encourage the kids to make up their own mnemonics to help them remember something, they are giving students the tools to help them remember lessons. This is an important way to impart academic independence to students with special needs.
Verbal Discussions About Lessons to Enhance Memory
It is important to have group discussions about new lessons being taught. Split the students up into pairs, and students with disabilities should comfortably be able to discuss what they have just learned with their partners. Verbalizing new concepts is a great way to remember them. Kids with special needs can also be taught to discuss their new skills at home with parents and further improve their retention.
Note Taking Tools and Tips
Give students the time to copy down notes or draw pictures of what they are being taught. Teachers can also provide study guides ahead of time with spaces allotted for notes or drawings. Study guides and review sheets can be organized in such a way so that kids can cover up the answers easily and learn to test themselves. Color-coded worksheets, notebooks, and index cards are also helpful.
Teaching memory techniques to kids with special needs is an important part of any curriculum in an inclusive classroom setting. Learning in the classroom is only possible when students can remember the lessons, and teachers can help students with disabilities learn how to do this more effectively by giving them memory strategies that encourage independent thinking, learning, and studying.
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