Ways to Improve Memory in Children

In the previous part (children and memory) we have discussed what is memory and how it develops in the children. In this part we would discuss how to memorise lessons and how parents could teach children the ways to do better in studies.

As told earlier, lessons are a different type of material in the world. They are a group of sentences having known and unknown words to the children. The lessons tells about an object or a concept orally and did not show how they work in reality. The concepts discussed in the lessons in some times are complex and most of the times confusing. These is the main reason for the children to lose their concentration.

Children reproduce lessons in two ways. In one way they reproduce the lessons in their own words and in the second way they by heart them and reproduce. The first way is a good way since it did not impose much stress on the child. The second way is tougher one since it involves reproduction of lessons sentence by sentence in an orderly manner.

The disadvantage in the second way is losing the track. If a kid loses a line in the lesson there is a danger of losing the entire lessons and he has to begin from the starting point. This takes lot of time and the children will lose their confidence in studies.

The first way will have lot of advantages. Once the child understands the lesson he could not forget the content and did not lose the track. This will not put stress on the children and they could complete the work in time.

There is no problem with the children who follows the first way, but the problems will be with the second way. Children have to spend more time to by heart the lesson. If the child has good memory it could by heart the lesson in a short period. If the memory is less, child takes lot of time to by heart the lesson.

Even after the child by hearts the lesson perfectly, it may lose the track in the reproduction process as they may forgot the lesson.

Reasons for forgetting the lessons is lack of confidence in the children. Children, those did not have confidence develop fear at the time of reproduction and they lose concentration and fail to reproduce the lesson.

So the key in developing memory is to build confidence among children. It should be done both at home and at school. At home parents should take care of children's study and encourage them even if they fail to reproduce the lesson properly. Parents should tell the children again and again that they can do what they have to.

At school, teachers should not punish the child or humiliate it, if fails to reproduce the lesson. Teacher should encourage the child to recollect material and give some time to build their confidence again. Teachers shall explain the complex concepts with good examples so that the child could understand what was the subject material about.

Complex words should also be explained and teachers should see that the child understands at least to the minimum level. A minimum understanding over the complex word will give confidence among the children and they will be able to reproduce.

Parents and teachers will have to understand the basics of how the brain works. Usually brain tries to differentiate between two objects and stores them in their respective category. It always compares the object with the one already exists in its database.

In case of explaining a new concept to the children it is always desirable to exhibit the concept with tools that the brain understands and  the explanation should take over the entire concentration of the brain so that it remembers the issue and stores in its database.

Children and Memory

Parents usually worry about their children's memory power. They want that the child should have good memory so that they can do better in studies and other study related activities. They want that their children should have super memory so that they could excel in the study related competitions.

However, children's memory grows as they grew up. Their brain starts distinguishing between various things and categorise them and stores them in the respective compartments in the brain. In the early childhood kids brain could not have the capacity to distinguish between various things. All items look same to them.

The only differentiation they do is between life and non life things. They memorise things that did not move and things that move on their own. However slowly they develop distinction among living things and differentiate between human beings and animals. In the latter stages they come to know about moving non living things and non moving non living things.

In the early childhood everything for children look like a wonder. So they ask lot of questions about the things in the world. Why a thing did not move, why a bird flies, how the train moves and etc. Slowly they understand from various sources how things work.

Coming to the memory, it depends mostly on concentration. When we concentrate on a particular thing for some time we will memorise them much. The attraction of thing, the excitement being given, happiness a thing provides and other factors would make things to memorise.

Children did not forget things like train, flight, school building, things in their house, shows on the TV, friends, close relatives, regular visitors, pets, parks, play grounds etc. Because they will have a regular impact on their sensual organs.

However, parents worry about the memory of the children when they fail in exams, could not recollect what they have read and other things related to study. Here one thing has to be observed. Kids could easily recollect the stories told in the school and the shows on the TV. But they might not do the same with regard to mathematics, science, language and other things.

When the children fail in exams parents start worrying about the memory power. They ask the children to read more and more. Some even try memory boosters that did not work. 

But these will not help in making the children to memorise the lessons at school. Parents must note that the lessons would be in an orderly manner and they have to be reproduced as they are. Children fear to recollect the same sentences in the same sequence as given in the lesson. They make them to fear about reading and this looks like loss of memory to the parents.

In such circumstances parents must note that it is not the failure of the children but it is the fear factor that causes the damage. When parents go on pressing the children to memorise the lessons, the children become more worried and lose their confidence.

We will discuss about how to improve the memory of children in the post.

Sleep of Children

A good sleep in the night will help immensely in proper growth of children. Bad sleep or no sleep in the night will tell on their health, mental ability and on other functions. Parents need to take care of the children with regard to sleep. If children experiencing bad sleep in the night, it would be better to take the help of doctors.

Children face problems in sleeping from 3 years onward since they would be exposed happenings in their surroundings. Various environmental and other problems will have their effect on the sleep of children. As they develop thoughts in their mind they would also have their impact on the children's sleep.

Usually kids need long sleep in depends on one age to another age. At least 9 hours of sleep is needed for their better growth. Less sleep causes drowsiness in the day time. They lack concentration in the day work and prefer sleep in the afternoon. A sleep in the afternoon is also preferable for kids. Many schools allow children to sleep in the afternoon hours.

Since children would be very active in the day time and do lot of physical work like playing and other things they become tired by night. Going to bed by 9 pm is preferable as it will help them to wake up by six am in the morning. Much late in going to bet will prolong the waking up time in the morning. Late in  going to bed and waking early in the morning will cause lot of trouble.

Children should wake as early as 6 or 6.30 am in the morning so that they can prepare for catching the bus to school. Washing, having breakfast, preparing their school bag and other sundry work will take their own time and children should have enough time to complete them in an orderly manner. Hurried preparation causes forgetting some and cause problems at school.

Usually children come down to home by 4 pm and go for playing. After coming from play, they will complete work given in the school, watch TV and have dinner and have some chat with parents and then go to bed. Even this activity also should be planned so that each activity could be done comfortably.

For a better sleep in the night children should not have any worry in their mind with regard to several things. Apart from worry about activity on the next day at school, other worries like problems with friends, school bus, health problems and others should be addressed by the parents. If the children is worrying about something, parents should calm down them by suggesting alternative ways to over come those problems.

The bed children use, the room where they sleep and bedsheets on the bed should be clean and tidy. Bed must be comfortable so that it did not disturb the sleep of the kid. Dim light, silence, warm cloths or coolness according to weather  conditions and comfort will help the children to have a good sleep.

Children should not be allowed to watch horror movies or other frightening shows on the TV since they will disturb their mental peace and cause sleeplessness. They must have a good dinner so that they did not feel hungry in the middle of the night.

Parents must develop the habit of waking up early in the morning in the children and it should be observed strictly. Only in conditions like sickness and in other conditions this could be relaxed.

It must be observed that whether the children feeling fresh and active in the morning or not. If they are not getting such feeling, it is the indication of bad sleep in the night.

How to Stop Bad Habits in the Children

Many children develop bad habits in the early age and stopping the habit becomes quite a difficult task for the parents. These bad habits might continue till the teenage or even further in the life. They would make parents to feel shy in public several times. Bad habits do some damage to the children as other kids and people dislike them.

Stopping the bad habits is much more important act for the parents. This has to be done as early as possible so that kids did not become victims of this habits. If needed parents have to take the help of doctors and child counsellors to control the bad habits of their children. Negligence in doing so would cause lot of damage to the children.

Bad habits develop in the children dew to several reasons. Kids acquire them dew to body conditions, peer impact and negligence of parents. Parents should find out the real reason behind the bad habit and correct it to stop the bad habit.

There are several types of bad habits that a child develops. Some children put their finger in their mouth and if the finger is removed they start crying. Few children eat pecks in the nose and mud. Few children eat chalk pieces. Several children always bite nails even blood oozes from the finger tips. These are the common  bad habits among the children.

Eating mud and chalk pieces would cause health problems. Constipation, indigestion and other problems occur due to these habits. Having the finger in the mouth would cause contacting infections. Biting the nails will cause loss of strength at finger tips.

Each habit will have its own reason. Eating chalk pieces and mud shows loss of taste in the mouth for the kids. This may be due to problems in the stomach. Parents should take them to the doctors to correct the problem.

Nail biting is a symptom for the stress, a child is facing. To avoid stress children bite nails and to over come the anxiety also, they adopt this habit. In this case psychiatrist and psychologist could help the parents to stop this type of bad habit.

Parents must notice these habits and  start to take actions to stop it. Some times children may not exhibit these habits at home and people who notice them might report it to the parents. In such times the parents should not ignore them and try to find out whether it is correct or not.

It is always advisable to the parents that children should not be frightened to avoid bad habit. At early age children did not yield to such punishments and become more adamant. They must try to convince the children about ill effects of the bad habits and see that they avoid them on their own.

Parents should not feel shy to take their children to the psychiatrist because it is not a bad thing. Except in eating mud and chalk in most of the other reasons psychiatrist and psychologists could be of immense help to the parents.

Children and Friends

In devoloping friendship with other children kids show different attitudes. Some mingle with other children easily and others show shy to make friends. These are not worrying factors. Parents need not worry if their children are fast in developing friends or slow in doing so.

Usually children will like kids of their own age for making friendship. Their first friends would be their cousins and neighborhood children. Just after they start going out they make friendship with other children. Most of the times they make friendship to play. Because playing will be the only activity they will have till they become 10 or 11 years old.

Often children  pickup quarrels with other children for silly reasons. If the other child grabs its doll the latter gets angry and picks up quarrel. Some times they beat up other children or receive the same treatment. However they forget these incidents in few hours and become friends again. Parents should not interfere in these affairs and should not support either of them.

Children become close to other children if they have similar habits. If two children have same tastes they become more friendly and keep together for hours. They exchange information between them and share dolls cloths. If the one of the pair did not meet the other for few days they would get upset. Childhood friendships often lost for long.

The other area where children make new friends is school. Usually classmates become friends. Children pickup their friends from their own gender. Girl picks up other girls and boy picks up another boy for friendship.

Few children did not make friends and stay alone. This is a some what  worrying thing. Parents have to care of such children to make such types of children to mingle with other children and to make friendship with others. This type of attitude is an indication of psychological problem. In such times parents should take the help of psychiatrist or psychologist to correct the problem.

Needless to say that friendship is more important in life. It helps in developing skills, developing the expression off feelings, getting information and socialising.

Some times few children show unnecessary anger and beat up their friends. In such conditions parents and teachers should counsel such children so that the kids reduce their anger and become soft child. If children continues to get angry even for small things that will have a bad impact on their future if it is not corrected in early age.

Parents should also develop friendship with their children and with the latters friends. Parents should welcome the friends of their kids and encourage to visit often. This gives pride to the children and they will have easy access with their friends.

Child's Qualities

Each kid in the world is unique and one differs from the other. No two children will have same tastes and habits. Their preferences would differ and vary from one kid to other kid.

Parents have to recognise the unique quality of the their children at a tender age and understand them. The unique quality of the child should be evaluated and examined. One has to assess the kid's uniqueness and find out whether they are good or bad. If the child possesses good quality it should be encouraged and if it is bad should be discouraged. The unique quality of child will stay with them for the life time.

For example John has a unique quality in uttering the words perfectly. Since it is a good quality it should be encouraged. If John could not pronounce the words properly it should be corrected so that he could better his pronunciation.

Some kids have good memory, good hand writing and other good qualities. They should be encouraged so that the child could get advantage of them. Few children will have more skills than the other children of their age. For example Teena can draw pictures perfectly. If she gets good encouragement from her parents she could become a good painter in the future.

Some kids have some phobias. They fear about water, height, depth, darkness and other things. This should be addressed properly. Parents must make a cautious efforts to remove these phobias and fears. However, kids should not pressured to shed their fears and phobias. If they are pressed the fears would become bigger and  the effort would become counter productive.

Parents must observe the children everyday to find out their qualities. Children would manifest them often and failure in recognising them would not help the parents in grooming the children in good manner.

At school also the teachers should find out the qualities of the children and shall act accordingly. If a child possesses a very good quality it shall be encouraged so that the child could take its advantage. Teachers should expose this quality to other students and ask them to follow the example.

Parents and teachers should provide the needed resources to the children so that the latter could improve their skills. If a child is good in painting she should be provided with colors, canvases and books about painting.

Children should be encouraged to participate in competitions in which they are good at. This will make them competent and improve their skill. If the child loses the competition it should not be discouraged instead should be soothed so that it could prepare for the next competition.

When Child Cries

Age between 0 and two years in kids life is critical as the child has to be looked after by parents cautiously. Parents have to understand the needs of the child and attend them promptly. Recognising exact need is more important in this age.

As 0 to 2 years old child did not express its problems in words, parents have to understand it on themselves. Usually child expresses its problem by crying. Cry of the child is an indication of its problem. It want immediate attention of parents or whom ever attending it.

Several problems may come up in that age and only expression about it, a child can give is a cry. Usually parents think that child is crying for food and give it milk or other food. But always hunger is not the problem of the child. It may fear about something, have pain in stomach or elsewhere in the body, irritation on the body, trouble with cloths, suffocation, much cold, much hot or any other problem.

Parents should understand that problem. If the child is not fed for a long time it would be better to give milk or other food. If the child is satisfied with that it stops crying. If the child continues to cry even after that it would be better to check for other problems.

If the child is having indigestion problem or bloating stomach problem it should be attended on the advice of a doctor. At the same time it would better to check if the child is having problems with the cloths and other wrappings. Better to remove the cloth and check whether they have left any mark on the skin.

Whenever it cries  parents should take it in to their arms and give a feeling of security and attention. If the baby is shivering it would be better to put extra cloths and if feeling suffocation, should place the child where there is plenty of air.

It would be better to check the bed of the child for any creachers, ants, flies and other material that is pricking the body. Child feels insecure in the cradle when loses balance, better to check whether the cradle is flat or not. If the cradle have any tilt, it should be corrected so that child did not feel that it would fell down.

Continuous cry of child is symptom of bigger problem. Even after attending all such problems, that we can detect, the child goes on crying, it would better to take it to the doctor. Checking of ear, nose, stomach, eyes, private parts, hand and legs should be done. Child should be shown to various paediatric specialists to find out the exact problems.

Parents should not take continuous cry of the children as problem to them and should not try to make the child calm by putting on the bed and showing some dolls to it. It would be better to make all the checks and give treatment till it stops crying. One must bear in the mind that crying is not a happy thing to child.

Since child between 0 to 2 years did not have intentions like vexing the parents or other demands and cry of child should be taken as demand from it for attention.

Usually in this age child did not demand for dolls or new cloths or something, because they did not know what are they. All that it needs is attention when it encounters a problem.

World of Children

Children are the most innocent people in the world. Their world is limited and the members of that are small in number. Parents, brothers and sisters, cousins, classmates, grand parents, uncles and aunts and teachers are the members of the world. Some times this world includes neighbors depending on the conditions.

Since they are innocent children did not allow any new person in to their world so easily. They fear about new person and do not include them in to their world till they have more exposures about the new person. So any new person even a relative have to meet the children often so that they can be trusted. Kids forgot people in their early age and one should meet them often so that it could remember.

Children love their parents more than anyone in the world. They trust teachers than anyone in the world. They take whatever the teachers says for granted. They believe their friends and do whatever they say.

Understanding the children is not an easy task. They change their habits and preferences too often. If one visits a child a year later he would find that the child had acquired new habits. So we can not depend on old information about the children.

They like people who encourage them. They did not like those scold or critisise. A child did not agree that it had made a mistake because it do not know what is wrong and what is right. Making them to  distinguish between right and wrong is also tough job.

Only a teacher can make them understand what is good and what is bad. A child follows his or her teacher's advice on what to do and not to do. Most of the times children take teacher's advice like an order and do not try to defy it.

Children always question the things happening in the world. For example they question why should one wash  hands before eating anything with hand. They also question restrictions like playing in the mud and dirt.

Children start questioning about the things from two years onward. By that time they acquire speaking skills and have enough vocabulary to frame questions. They insist on convincing answers and did not compromise with what a parent or any other person tell. They did not agree with the reasoning that some things have to be taken for granted.

Up to teenage children would look like question banks to the parents. It is always advisable to encourage them to ask questions. If a child is restricted from questioning he would take everything for granted in the world stop questioning. This will make them fools after they grow up. If we do not know  the answer it is always advisable to tell the kid to find out the answer from some other.