Remembering begins with understanding. Children learn about memory by talking with others and by experiencing life events within their environments. If children experience events that they do not fully understand, they are less likely to remember the event, or to recall it correctly. Adults play a significant role in helping children understand and remember. The most important role for adults is providing responsive, joyful, and nurturing interactions with children. Another important yet simple way adults can help is by telling stories and narrating experiences, especially experiences they have shared with children.

By doing so, adults revisit events, provoke thought, and even help children recall what they cannot remember. In essence, adults are reconstructing the shared memory.

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2. Wang, Q., & Gülgöz, S. (2019) New perspectives on childhood memory: introduction to the special issue, Memory, 27:1, 1-5.

Read more at CD-MEM-C03.