With older children it can be helpful to raise awareness of why it may be difficult for them to understand or remember information. They may find it helpful to practice using their understanding and memory skills in structured activities and to learn strategies for supporting their understanding and memory. The long-term aim is for them to use strategies to support their understanding and memory in everyday situations.

Problem Solving

Have a discussion with the child or young person about what they think makes it difficult to understand and remember information. Problem solve these issues. Discuss what might happen if you have not understood or remembered and what you could do, for example asking for repetition, asking for help etc.

Key words (see separate handout for more information)Practise identification of key words – i.e. the information carrying words in a sentence. Initially the adult will need to highlight the key words, but later ask the child what they think the most important words are in the instruction e.g. writing a command on the board and underlining the key words.

Memory cardsIntroduce the use of memory cards as a memory jogger. They could contain written words or pictures of key information in the correct sequence.

For example:

Write dateDraw mapLabel the riversLabel the seas

Encourage the child to rehearse the key words from the instruction, initially out loud and then to themselves (with or without their memory card). This will keep the message or instruction fresh in their memory. In this way the child can learn to internalise this and use this functionally and consistently.

I went shopping…

Activities to support understanding in older children and young people

In groups, start the game by saying ‘I went shopping and I bought a pizza.’ The next player must repeat this phrase and add a new item e.g. ‘I went shopping and I bought a pizza and a banana’. This game can be changed to suit any class topic. It helps to reinforce vocabulary as well as memory e.g. ‘I went to Egypt and I visited…’ (Geography)‘I went back to 1939 and I saw…’ (History / English)

Asking for clarificationIntroduce a Simon Says game by telling the child that you’re going to give them instructions but make mistakes on purpose. The instruction might be said too quietly, too fast, be too long, or have a word they might not know. They have to make the right request so that you repeat the command in the right way e.g. “Please can you say it louder”, “Please can you say it slower”, “Please can you break it down for me”, “What does that word mean?”.

Once you have introduced the strategies, play the game by giving instructions (see examples below) and encourage the child to ask for clarification. If they use the wrong strategy, for example say ‘please can you say it louder’ when they should have said ‘please say it slower’, repeat the instruction as they have requested. Encourage them to try again with a different strategy.

For example:

Simon Says touch your nose and shut your eyes (say this instruction too quietly)

Simon Says clap your hands and touch your chin (say this instruction too fast)

Simon Says stand up, sit down, walk to the door, come back to your spot, hop on one foot once, sit back down, tap your head 2 times then touch your nose and clap your hands 3 times (keep saying this instruction without pausing)

Simon Says sit on the floor warily (this is a word the children will probably not understand)

Kim’s GamePlace three objects on a tray. Ask the child to look at the objects and try to remember them. Cover or hide the tray of objects from the child and remove one item. Ask the child which one is missing. If the child cannot remember, give them clues e.g. ‘you find it in a pencil case’ or encourage them to ask questions e.g. ‘what is it made of?’ If the child finds this game easy, increase the number of items on the tray and the number of items that you remove.

Story Recall

A story is read to the child or young person and then they can be asked specific questions on the content. Practise retelling the story and act out different parts. If they find it hard to remember specific details from the story you could introduce visual note taking. Encourage the student to note down words or draw pictures to represent key words as they listen to the story. They can then refer to the notes when they are answering questions about the story. This may take some practice and initially the adult will have to speak slowly to allow the child or young person to keep up.

Directed Drawingo Give instructions of what the child or young person can draw or colour.

o Pre-prepare a series of hand drawn figures on card or paper. The child or young person will be given careful step by step instructions on how to draw the picture. These should include placement on the page and the direction and orientation of the line. It will also include the size, shape and relationship to other parts of the figure. The complexity of the task may be varied.

o Instructions ideas: ‘I have some pictures drawn on these sheets of paper. Without showing them to you, I am going to describe what they look like and you have to draw what I say onto your piece of paper. We will compare how much they look alike at the end of the session. Listen carefully, and I will tell you what to do.’

For example:

‘Draw a red square (pause) in the middle of your page’, ‘Draw a blue triangle (pause) inside the square (pause) and a yellow circle (pause) on top of the square.’

o To make the task more difficult use more complex vocabulary. Take it in turns to give each other instructions. Once the child or young person is confident with this task you can try making some errors and allow the child or young person to correct you.

o Encourage the child or young person to use verbal rehearsal (repeating the instruction silently or out loud) to help them remember what they need to do.