Problems with memory and attention in children. Does the child really have a bad memory?

Does your child forget notebooks and textbooks at home, even though he got ready in the evening and was in no hurry? You sent him to buy bread and he bought chocolate? Doesn't he remember what happened at school today?

A child has poor memory - what to do?

Do not rush to accuse your son or daughter of laziness or unwillingness to study. Maybe it's all my fault bad memory the child, and there are quite objective reasons for this. To decide how to improve memory, you need to understand the causes of this disorder:

It's time for lunch!

One of the reasons for memory deterioration in a child is obvious - improper nutrition. If your son eats a sandwich for breakfast, snacks on a chocolate bar with Coke at school, and at lunch treats his stomach to chips before going for a walk, in this case, even a full evening dinner in the company of his parents will not help matters.

An unbalanced diet, a lack of vitamins, microelements and other useful substances necessary for a growing body during its formation period can lead to disastrous results.

H what to do: It is in childhood that the foundation of everything in the body is laid. What was lost in childhood cannot be made up in adulthood. Therefore, pay close attention to what your child eats, talk to class teacher so that she makes sure that the child receives breakfast in the school cafeteria. Children are required have to have lunch at school and not cookies, but a full-fledged hot dish . And no diets that girls are subject to adolescence. Any dietary restrictions are also detrimental to memory.

Daily regime

Inattention, impaired concentration, memory impairment may be associated with an incorrect daily routine:

1. the child sits late at night watching TV or at the computer;
2. sleeps little;
3. does not rest during the day;
4. finishes homework late.

An incorrect balance between rest and workload can lead to overexertion, and the child will simply stop perceiving the amount of information he needs at his age.

H what to do: Try to follow the established daily routine. Involve your child in its preparation, let him add to it those activities that he considers important. Make a poster and hang it in a visible place.

Electronic evil

Uncontrolled use of electronic media has never helped anyone mobile phones, computers, tablets. Why should a child train his memory, remember something, if he, all hung with gadgets, can find all the necessary information in one minute on the Internet. Here is another source of unconsciousness for modern children - computerization of our lives.

What to do: try to distract your child from his personal electronic friend: talk to him, tell a story from your family’s life, share your knowledge of history, offer to read together and then discuss a book, go together to a museum where the child will receive new information. Of course, if the narrator is mom or dad, whom the child sees so rarely, he will remember everything much faster.

Chewing gum for unconsciousness

Modern scientists sometimes come to completely unexpected results in their research. It turns out that it impairs memory... chewing gum. Psychologists at Cardiff University in England have proven that chewing gum harms short-term memory.

Chewing gum is a monotonous, monotonous reflex movement. But because of this, a person cannot concentrate on something important. And this applies to both children and adults. The person becomes distracted and does not remember what he was doing a minute ago. Judge for yourself, your child will never get an A if he spends the entire test concentrating on chewing and not solving examples.

Often parents of teenagers begin to note that their teenage son or daughterThey begin to remember certain events worse, they learn the material poorly, and formerly excellent students at school “slip” into C grades... This phenomenon is called hypomnesia - memory loss or dysmnesia - memory disorders. Memory is a special property of a person, which is represented by a complex of special processes in the cerebral cortex, thanks to which previously learned information is remembered, stored and reproduced. Problems can occur at the memorization level, storage level, or all processes at the same time.

Memory disorders in adolescents have many causes, and parents are not always able to connect the events occurring with their child and subsequent disorders in the nervous system. A teenager is no longer quite a child; the demands placed on him have already expanded - both in school, at home, and among his peers. However, comparing it with an adult is also wrong - this is still an immature organism, the nervous connections are not fully formed and the functioning of the nervous and endocrine systems is unstable.

Memory loss in a teenager that occurs suddenly and strongly requires mandatory consultation with a neurologist. The fact is that memory disorders can be symptoms of mental illness, which, fortunately, is quite rare. Very common reasons memory disorders are head injuries - bruises, concussions, which require mandatory medical consultation and treatment.

In adolescents, especially recently, memory impairments that are associated with the use of various toxic substances - alcohol, nicotine or various psychotropic substances - have become more common. The company's influence is great. And even children from very decent families are not immune from this. Parents should always be aware of who their teenager is communicating with and what they are doing in their free time.

Most memory problems in adolescents arise due to a discrepancy between the loads placed on a teenager and his real capabilities.In addition, memory impairment can be caused by circulatory failure, a deficiency of certain substances in the diet during periods of active growth and hormonal changes in the body, and hypoxia (lack of oxygen).

Nerve cells experience enormous stress, especially during periods of active teenage activities. when he is preparing for exams, olympiads or increased demands are placed on him (special schools, additional classes). If there is not sufficient energy supply in the form of glucose from the diet and regular intake of vitamins and minerals, the functioning of some departments may be disrupted. First of all, the functions of the cerebral cortex suffer, since it is it that consumes the largest amount of nutrients for normal functioning. Namely, the cortex is responsible for memory.

Plus, a significant role is played by little exposure to air and chronic lack of sleep, because of this, the supply of oxygen to the body suffers and hypoxia develops, which generally affects the functioning of the brain. The teenager becomes drowsy, lethargic, has headaches, palpitations and blood pressure fluctuations. A decrease in the amount of active recreation and overstimulation of the cortex with unnecessary, unnecessary information from TV and the Internet have an effect. The process of memorization is significantly influenced by the situation - if a teenager learns lessons on a computer or with the TV on, his memory will suffer significantly. The brain simultaneously analyzes and remembers, creating associative connections, both necessary and simultaneously perceived extra sound and visual information.

How can you help your child?

First, there is no need to burden the child. big amount additional classes - if these loads are excessive, all the information will not be able to be effectively absorbed and, instead of being useful, it will only do harm. The teenager will be upset that he cannot perceive and remember everything that is given to him, and this will lead to neuroses, which themselves reduce memory.

If possible, protect him from watching TV, sitting at the computer and aggressive computer games that overstimulate the nervous system. Provide him with active rest, enroll him in a sports section - changing areas of activity, alternating mental and physical stress has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the nervous system. try to monitor his diet - do not allow both overeating and starvation - girls are especially guilty of this when they care about their figure. food should be rich in vitamins and minerals, it should contain meat and vegetables and fruits. during periods of intense stress, metabolic complexes (Elcar, Lemontar, glycine) and vitamin and mineral preparations suitable for age will be useful.

The fact that a child has poor memory is usually discovered when school begins. But problems with memorization do not always indicate that a child has problems with memory. You should also not draw premature conclusions that the child is lazy and does not make enough effort to study. Understanding the essence of the problem will help you find the answer to the question of how to improve your child’s memory.

Causes of poor memory in children

1. A group of reasons related to lifestyle and workload. Observe your child, note which activities, in addition to studying, take up a significant part of his time: games, walks, watching TV, additional clubs and sections. Does the child have a clear daily routine? Does he alternate between physical and mental activity? Is he getting enough rest? The fact is that modern children are sometimes as tired as adults. Due to the abundance of information coming from outside and daily overload, they cannot fully rest and recuperate during night sleep. As a result, they become lethargic, distracted, concentration decreases and, as a result, memory deteriorates.
2. Lack of microelements and vitamins. Monitor what your child eats and whether his nutrition is adequate. Try to ensure that your baby receives all the necessary nutrients along with food. The amount of fluid consumed is no less important, because its lack negatively affects the functioning of the brain.
3. Insufficient memory training in children. Sometimes the core of the problem is that insufficient attention was paid to training the child’s memory. This problem can be eliminated with persistent regular exercise. It should also be noted that memory is directly related to speech, so a child with insufficiently developed speech will inevitably have problems with memory.

Thus, the first two groups of reasons can be dealt with by revising the child’s lifestyle, establishing a clear sleep and wakefulness regime, stress and rest. If the reason is pedagogical in nature, you need to work with the child.

How to develop memory in a child?

Knowing the characteristics of memory development in children will help in finding methods to improve it. First of all, you need to find out what type of memory is most pronounced in the child.

The following types of memory are distinguished:

Nothing is as good for a child’s development as communication. Communicate with your child as much as possible every day, learn little poems and interesting tongue twisters, use special memory games for children and the results will immediately show. Also pay attention to the development of associative thinking - describe the object in detail: its color, size, shape, smell, this will have a beneficial effect on the development of figurative memory.

Ecology of life. Children: Poor memory in children is very rare, most often it is simply not developed enough, and to cope with this problem...

The question of how to improve a child’s memory is asked sooner or later by any parent. Most often, such a moment occurs when the child goes to school, and the great amount information. However, there are simple ways, with the help of which you can not only improve your child’s memory, but, perhaps, get rid of forgetfulness yourself.

It is worth remembering that poor memory in children is very rare, most often it is simply not developed enough, and this problem is not so difficult to cope with.

Method 1. Ask how the child’s day was

Every evening, ask your baby to tell you about his day. With all the smallest details. This is great memory training. Such monologues will help your child learn to build a chronology of events and analyze them.

At first, the child’s story will be confusing, but over time his speech will become more coherent, he will remember more and more details and small details.

To help your child, you can ask him questions: “What was your friend Katya doing when you were playing doctor?”, “What color was her dress?” etc.

Method 2. Read books with your child

While the child is still small, read to him, for example, interesting, memorable fairy tales or poems before bed. Try learning small quatrains by heart together. This will have the most beneficial effect on vocabulary your baby. And when he learns to read on his own, try to instill in him a love for this activity.

Let the book become good friend for a child. Even if the child doesn’t really want to, let it be a mandatory rule for him to read several pages a day of a book. And be sure to ask him to retell what he read and express his opinion.

Method 3. Play words with your child

• Tell your baby 10 words and ask him to repeat them. You can choose words on a specific topic (fruits and vegetables, food, toys, trees, flowers, what objects are in the room, etc.). All the words that the child did not name must be reminded. It is believed that if a 6-7 year old child can repeat 5 words out of 10, he has a good short-term memory, and if he says 7-8, his long-term memory is also well developed.
• To develop visual memory, you can post pictures in front of your baby.(for example, 5-7 pieces) and ask you to remember them. Then you can remove one or two and ask what is missing, or mix all the pictures in places and ask the child to put them in the original order.
• With older children you can play this game a little differently. Place a photo or picture in front of them with lots of details. Let the child look at it for 15-20 seconds, trying to remember as many details as possible. Then remove the picture and ask him to write down a list of everything he remembers on a piece of paper.

Method 4. Train your child’s attentiveness

Remember, in our childhood magazines like “Murzilka” there were problems in which you had to find the difference between one picture and another. Such tasks can now be easily found in books on child development, of which there are a great many. These exercises are not only very exciting, but also excellent for training memory, attentiveness and imagination.

Method 5. Master the Cicero method

The essence of this method is to mentally arrange the objects that need to be remembered in a well-known space - this could be your own room, the attic, or any room that the child knows well. The main rule of this principle of memorization is that we mentally reduce large objects, and increase small ones.

For example, a child needs to remember 5 words - umbrella, bear, orange, hippopotamus, sea, chair. All these words need to be mentally placed in the room: an umbrella should be hung on the door handle, a large orange should be placed on the windowsill, a chair should be placed in front of the bed, a tiny bear should be sent for a walk under the flower on the window, and a small hippopotamus should be sent to sleep on the bed, and the sea should rage on the TV. After some training, the child, in order to reproduce the chain of words, will only need to recall the interior of his home in his memory.

Method 6. Teach your child the association method

This method will perfectly help you remember information if a chaotic set of facts does not want to fit into a coherent classification. Teach your child to build relationships between the memorized word and something very familiar and understandable to him. Ask your child what he associates this or that word with, or come up with it together. Associations can be familiar or funny, familiar to everyone or understandable only to you and the baby.

Method 7. Learn a foreign language with your child

It's a great memory workout, just like any new skill, like playing a musical instrument or even learning to dance. 10 new foreign words a day or a couple of simple phrases - it won’t take much time to remember them, but it’s very useful and the child will definitely need this skill in the future. And be sure to repeat what you learned the day before the next day.

Method 8. Enroll your child in sports

Introduce your child to sports. It would seem, where is the connection with memory? However, any physical exercise, especially on fresh air, stimulate blood flow and promote better blood supply to the brain, which, in turn, has a beneficial effect on memory. Do not neglect walks with your baby, ventilate his room more often, especially before bed.

Method 9. Teach your child to strain his memory

The most in a simple way memory development is training. Sounds corny? Yes, but without regular exercise nothing will happen. And in our age of tablets, smartphones and the Internet, it is becoming increasingly difficult to strain your memory, because the easiest way is to look for something forgotten on the vastness of the World Wide Web. And children master these skills almost from the cradle.

Therefore, it is so important to teach a child that if he has forgotten something, let him first try to remember on his own, and only if nothing comes out within a few minutes, let him look in a dictionary or the Internet.

Method 10. Make the right diet

Of course, one proper nutrition A child cannot develop good memory, but there are basic products that contain substances necessary to improve brain activity, and therefore improve memory.

That's why include in your child's diet:

• fatty fish,
• bananas,
• walnuts,
• carrot,
• spinach,
• broccoli

– yes, children are not delighted with some of these products, but they should be present in at least small quantities on the child’s menu. published

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If your child often forgets about the requests of adults, and learning a small quatrain is an overwhelming task for him, you should not assume that he is disobedient and inattentive, perhaps he simply has a bad memory. It is possible to correct this deficiency. And it is recommended to do this while the child is not yet going to school, otherwise this problem will worsen in the future, as a result of which the student’s academic performance will suffer. As a result - bad grades in the diary, lack of knowledge, complete apathy towards learning. So, the child has a bad memory: what to do in this case and what measures to take?

How to recognize the problem?

If an adult has been working with a child since birth, you are unlikely to have to worry about poor memory. However, even in this case there is no guarantee that the baby will have perfect memory. How then do you understand that your child needs help? Try to find out the following points:

1. Does the child answer direct questions from adults?
2. Does he complete simple tasks or refuses them, not even trying to remember basic things?
3. Does your baby know how to maintain attention on a specific activity, or does he seem distracted and inattentive to you?
4. How easy is it for him to follow precise instructions provided by an adult?
5. Is it a problem for him to do tasks where he needs to collect and process information?

At least one positive answer to these questions is a reason to begin serious work on developing the child’s memory. However, first you need to understand the cause of the problem.

Poor memory in a child: the main reasons

A child can suffer from poor memory for a number of reasons. And most often the problem is not so terrible: it can be corrected if an adult knows what and how to do about it. If, as a result of correction, the child’s memory improves, as a result, he will be able to easily concentrate his attention on activities, which will have a positive impact on success in school in the future. So, the reasons for poor memory may be:

How to train a child's memory?

The sooner you start training your child's memory, the better. From birth, the baby needs to read rhymes and fairy tales, tell nursery rhymes, and sing songs. For younger preschoolers, fairy tales with multiple repetitions of words and phrases will be useful: the child involuntarily remembers them. When the baby tries to reproduce what he heard, do not skimp on praise - this will turn out to be the best incentive for learning new poems.

It is equally important to communicate with your child different topics, discuss what you saw and heard. Talk to the baby, listen carefully to his story. When describing a new item, you need to do it emotionally, vividly, pay attention to the smallest details. After a few days, consolidate the result of the conversation.

Play educational games with your child every day: offer to memorize objects, then place them in the correct order, find an extra or missing object, etc. In children's stores you can purchase educational board games for children of any age. Thus, memory development will be varied and versatile.

Memory training is a long and labor-intensive process. Therefore, you should not expect quick results: only hard daily work will allow you to get what you are striving for. But if, after a period of constant training, improvements are not noticeable, you should consult a neurologist for advice. You may need medication or a special set of exercises. Remember, a timely solution to the problem will help prevent the development of unpleasant moments in older age.