Remember, young children learn best when doing “hands on” activities
with someone who cares about them.
1. Cue your child to listen to you and to look at you when you give an
instruction—sometimes children don’t follow an instruction because they
haven’t really focused on what you are saying.
2. Praise your child for listening and following directions. (“Wow, Mary, you
really listened and remembered to do both of the things I asked!” rather
than “Good girl, Mary”.)
3. Play Find It—ask your child to get two or three things and bring them to
you, or ask them to follow two or three step directions with some small
toys. For example, you could ask her to get her Teddy Bear, blanket and
favorite book and bring them to the couch, and reward her with a story
and a cuddle. Or, you could have several small toys and containers and ask
her to follow directions such as “Touch the block, put the ball in the box,
and give me the doggy,” building up to three steps.
4. Play “Concentration”. You can buy or make the cards yourself:
Paste pairs pictures or stickers to the backs of 3x5 cards or squares
of paper—you’ll need about 10 to 15 sets of cards. Lay the cards face
down on the table and take turns picking up one card, looking at it and
then turning over another card to see if it matches. As you turn over
the cards, your child should start to remember where the matching
card is located. Start with as few as six sets and gradually increase
the number of pairs of cards you use as your child learns the game,
and her memory skills improve.
5. There are some commercially available “Memory” games available: Pooh
Memory and Turtle Memory are just two.
6. Read stories with your child and ask her what happened to the characters
in the story.
7. Make a sequencing activity. You can get children’s story books at St.
Vincent’s or Goodwill or garage sales. Cut the pages of a familiar story,
such as the 3 Bears, apart, and have your child put them in the sequence
of the story. Start with 3 pictures, for example, 1 showing Goldilocks
coming to the Bears’ home, 1 showing her breaking the chair and then a
picture of the Bears coming home and finding her asleep. As your child
learns the activity, you can increase the number of steps to about 8.
8. Teach your child to do something which has several steps. For example,
teach her how to make a sandwich. Give instructions for two or three
steps at a time, for example, put the bread and peanut butter on the
counter and get a knife from the drawer.
9. Start a journal with your child. Sit down with your child in the evening
and talk about her day. She can draw a picture highlighting a favorite
activity, and you can write a word or two at the bottom, like “Playing with
Julie” She will learn to recall events which happened earlier in the day
and it is a nice way to share and wind down at the end of the day.
10. Switch roles and ask your child to give you directions or lead a game.
You can be silly and pretend to forget what to do next and have your child
remind you.
11. Ask your child to tell you things about familiar objects, places or people
which are not in view at the time. For example, “Tell me three things
about our car.”
12. Ask your child to name things from a common category, for example,
“Tell me all of the animals you can think of” Other categories would
include shapes, colors, articles of clothing, names, body parts, toys, etc.
13. Build memory and thinking skill activities into daily routines, for
example remembering what things need to be done when it is bathtime, or
what steps to take when helping Mommy bake cookies.
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