The importance of understanding working memory in children

1. The importance of understanding working memory in children What we will cover • What is working memory • What is the relevance • The two working memory skills • Reflection time • Working memory and attention • How to minimise working memory failure • Summary of things we do as teachers to help

2. Working memory is the ability to remember and manage information. • It is the ability to hold and manipulate information in the mind for brief periods of time in the course of on-going mental activities

3. Problems with working memory can be easily addressed in schools • Advantage over IQ which can be more difficult for teachers to influence • Targeted support from the teacher within the classroom at any age leads to a reduction in the number of those failing in schools • Helps address the problem of under-achievement.

4. In the classroom, children use: 1. Verbal working memory to remember instructions, learn language, and perform comprehension tasks 2. Visual-spatial working memory to remember sequences of events, patterns, images, and Maths skills. Short term memory = Remember Working memory = Remember + WORK

5. Verbal working memory remembering sequences of 3 or more numbers, symbols, unrelated words or letter combinations remembering and successfully following verbal instructions remembering lengthy sentences containing some arbitrary content to be written down remembering sentences with complicated grammatical structure identifying missing numbers in a sequence

6. Visual working memory keeping track of the place reached in the course of multi-level tasks such as writing a sentence down from memory or white-board avoid missing out chunks of text or letters when copying working out the order of events, despite having a visual reminder re-telling in chronological order a sequence of events from memory, using words such as first, second, next, last remembering and performing rehearsed actions to lines of poetry

7. Task - what sort of classroom activities would involve each type of working memory? What sort of difficulties would you expect a child with dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, ASD or ADHD to have?

8. Short term memory = Remember Working memory = Remember + WORK

9. Working memory and attention • Some researchers have proposed that symptoms of ADHD arise from a primary deficit in a specific executive function domain, such as working memory, response inhibition or a more general weakness in executive control. • When we look at pupils who have been assessed and have working memory problems (not forgetting all of those who haven't been assessed), teachers rarely say that they have "memory problems". • Instead, the majority of pupils are described as having "short attention spans", as being "easily distracted", as "only paying attention to things he is really interested in", and having "difficulty in concentrating".

10. “ short attention span” “easily distracted” “doesn’t listen” “difficulty in concentrating” “only pays attention if he’s interested” Minimise working memory failure to improve attention

11. Recognise the four main signs: incomplete recall, failure to follow instructions, place-keeping errors, task abandonment Monitor the child, and talk to him Evaluate. What is the difficulty? Is it a lengthy task, is the content unfamiliar, is there a demanding mental processing activity? Reduce working memory loads. reduce the amount you want them to do in one go try to increase its familiarity and meaningfulness Simplify mental processing Restructure complex tasks How do we minimise working memory failure?

12. Show the big picture – visually, and how this work fits into the bigger picture Deeper processing – think aloud, talk aloud Chunk the work Keep instructions short and speak at a speed which your class can process easily Change the activity in your room – allow movement – on your terms Keyword list on display every lesson - the relevant words Active, not passive learning. Draw the children in using wowo boards for example Make the beginning and end points of the task clear (eg using a list of steps to task completion, or a series of prompt cards, pictures or diagrams) Use a model or picture of the final goal or end product, so the child knows what is expected Avoid ambiguity – use visual clues to highlight meaning Use good verbal descriptions to support a visual task, and likewise, use an image to support verbal instructions - engaging the child’s visual and verbal working memory Specifically teach how to make choices Build in time for metacognition - thinking about thinking and understanding the processes they go through Build in opportunities to generalise knowledge and skills Make the connections with previous skills or knowledge explicit Use graphic organisers Create bridges – between new info and long term knowledge Collaborative learning eg jigsaw grouping Be aware of giving too much of an open-ended task. Scaffold the work Use numbers rather than bullet points ENABLE