Auditory memory involves more than just remembering. It’s a link in chain that includes listening to words or other sounds, processing what it means, storing it and then finding it in the memory banks when needed. Auditory skills aren’t just important for learning to read, they are critical for all learning. To help your child develop auditory memory here’s some quick, and Fun! activities:
- Echo–Pretend you are an echo and ask your child to say something. Then, you repeat what your child said. Now, you say something and have your child be the echo. “The cheese walked to the store”, doesn’t make sense but creates giggles. “The book made breakfast for the shoes”, is a longer sentence so more difficult to remember. This game can use short sentences for younger children and longer ones for older kids.
- Instead of using words, try some clapping. For instance, one clap followed by two fast ones is fairly simple. This gets more challenging depending on the number of claps and the timing.
- Another variation is simple sounds. A clap, a hum, and a Hurrah is an example of a sound sentence. Again, the number of sounds can be adapted for your child’s age and ability.
(Kids sometimes play another variation of an echo game called copycat where they repeat everything said by a brother or sister. I loved the tv commercial where a younger brother was driving his older sister crazy. He soon stopped, tho, when she said “My sister is smart and beautiful.” If you really need your kids to do something, you can play the game awhile until their attention wanders. Slip in the “I’m going to fold the laundry before playing” and when they echo just smile and say Thanks. It gets their attention but only works once or twice!)
If you notice that your child is having some real challenges in this area I’ve recently become aware of a book called Learning Disabilities, There is a Cure by Addie Cusimano. I’ve added it to my list for summer reading. Is anyone familiar with this book and can recommend it?