Memory deveopment in young children has an impact on their learning abilities in later years. Children with better memory also have better executive function skills, which lays the foundation for healthy development in other domains.
MEMORY DEVELOPMENT IN YOUNG CHILDREN HAS AN IMPACT ON THEIR LEARNING ABILITIES IN LATER YEARS. CHILDREN WITH BETTER MEMORY ALSO HAVE BETTER EXECUTIVE FUNCTION SKILLS, WHICH LAYS THE FOUNDATION FOR HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT IN OTHER DOMAINS.
Very young children can remember what they see and experience. This means that providing early stimulation is useful because the benefits of what the child had experienced can be retrived in memory, and would also be effective later on. In experimental studies with 32 babies between 5.5 and 6 months old, researchers found that when two objects that had never appeared together were simultaneously activated in memory, babies linked the representations of those objects.
Neither object was physically present at the time the association was formed. The association remained latent for up to 2 weeks when the babies used it to perform a similar task. These findings reveal that what babies merely see ‘‘brings to mind’’ what they saw before and combine in new ways.
The fact that a young child can remember suggests that the effects of early experiences can be relatively enduring. It also shows that the benefit derived from early stimulation is effective for the child's future development.
Research has found that children with better memories in early childhood tended to have better memories later on as well. Longitudinal investigation examined declarative memory during the transition from toddlerhood to school-age using both experimental and standardised assessments. Results indicates significant associations between immediate non-verbal recall at 20 months old and immediate verbal and non-verbal memory at six years old in typically developing children.
A Canadian study, which examined responses from 1,824 children, also found correlations between children’s working memory at toddler age and dropout risk scale at age 12. The study assessed children on an imitation sorting task (which measures working memory) at age 2.5, and again at age 3.5. That data was then compared to the school-related attitudes and results of these children when they reached grade seven.
The results found that those who did better on the task during toddlerhood were more likely to perform better in school later, and therefore more likely to stay in school. These findings suggest that early individual differences in working memory may contribute to developmental risk for high school dropout, as calculated from the student’s engagement in school, grade point average and whether they previously repeated a year in school.
Researchers recommend these activities to boost younger children's working memory:
i) Pretend play, which involves remembering their roles and the roles of others
ii) Helping children to focus, by using reminders and building of joint attention, and
iii) Reducing screen-time.
Working memory is argued to be the first component of executive functions to begin developing. The ability to hold information in the mind over a delay is necessary to carry out more sophisticated executive functions.4 Working memory begins to develop before six months of age,