As a parent, your child’s best interest always comes first. Below are some tips to discuss with your child’s teacher to help the child overcome learning disabilities. The Calgary School Board and the Calgary Catholic School Board has several qualified schools to help children with learning disabilities. Charter and independent and after school programs may also be of great help.
Develop routines
The best way to help kids develop working memory is to help them get into routines. We no longer need working memory to function when we can automate a task. Keeping track of what to do next consumes cognitive space – and that’s not necessary. Follow these tips to create routines:
Consistency is key: Routines should just be routines. Identify a pattern that works for you and stick to it.
You need to be patient: It takes time to develop effective habits, and distractions will occur. Children don’t learn everything right away. Reminding and praising your child will help him stay on track until the routine is ingrained.
Create visual and verbal backups to routines to help kids internalize them: As an example of visual cues, you could draw a picture to illustrate the structure of an essay, write out the steps of a math problem, place post-it notes throughout your house as reminders
For example, he might say out loud before he does each task, “Step 3, put my homework in my backpack…”, or make up a song or poem to help him memorize important information – such as the names of all 50 states.
You should outsource
It is not necessary to remember everything. Tools such as to-do lists, organizers, and reminders allow kids to free up valuable workspace and manage their information more effectively. By externalizing organizational tasks, kids can free their working memory of some of the burden. Every assignment, every idea, everything the child wants to remember should be written down.
Organizational tools are only effective if they are used. Make sure your child uses the right tools and makes them part of his daily routine.
Children often believe that they will remember information later on, so they don’t write it down. Then after they’ve finished the assignment, they’re embarrassed and frustrated because they can’t remember everything they need. They do the same thing the next day too. They think they can remember what they need to do – until they can’t.
Get your child into the habit of writing down important information right away, even if he thinks he will remember it – dates for field trips, homework assignments, his brilliant idea for building a toy house.
Using technology
Learning can also be improved with technology. Some things might be too time taking and cumbersome to learn if conventional methods of learning are used. However, the use of technology has shown its ability to lower the burden, especially for the most vulnerable students. Technology can be thoughtfully integrated into our kids’ learning process giving them the opportunity to develop skills that allow them to reach their full potential. The inclusion of technology also has some drawbacks, which can also be overcome with proper guidance and supervision. We know that infants learn by interacting with our natural world and with each other. Their early interactions with devices rather than humans can interrupt or misinform neural growth.
The medication
Working memory is not treated by ADHD medications, but they do reduce distractibility and increase focus, making it easier for children to access their working memory. Providing clear directions and manageable instructions is still crucial, however.
Playing games
Brain training is being studied to see if it can actually improve working memory. In the future, we may learn more about the effectiveness of these strategies, but at present, their long-term benefits aren’t clear. Computer games, apps, and memory games can be utilized along with other approaches, but it is important to stick with established methods as well.
Let them teach you
To explain how to do something, it’s vital to be able to make sense of the information and mentally organize it. The skill your child is learning could be skating. Have your child demonstrate it to you. The teachers usually do the same thing by pairing up their students in the classroom and asking them to explain a particular task to their classmates.
Summing it up
Right now, creating and practicing healthy, effective coping strategies is the best way to help kids with working memory issues and improve the learning abilities of your child. You can help your child develop lifelong coping strategies by creating routines, providing tools, and offering support.