According to Dr. Joel Levin, Educational Psychologist at the University
of Arizona, " Many folks - motivated students included - use memory
enhancing techniques, especially when there's a 'memory payoff,'
such as obtaining higher academic grades or admission to some elite
professional school or graduate program."

To put it simply, mnemonics are memory aids that help make a
connection between what you already know and what you need to
remember. You probably use mnemonics in your daily life and don't
even know it. (Does "I before E except after C" ring a bell?).

How about the order of the planets? (My very educated mother just
served us nine pizzas - look at the first letter of each word in that
sentence and you'll have the names of the planets, in their correct
order).

All you need to do is follow one of the three memory strategies I'll list
here and you can help your child create funny (goofy is ok, too) and
effective mnemonics starting tonight.

First method: Acronyms.

Take the first letter of the series of words you need to memorize and
make a word out of them. The more famous acronyms we have are
SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus), NASA
(National Aeronautics and Space Administration), and AIDS
(Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome).

Ask your son or daughter if there's a list of vocabulary, facts or figures
they need to learn for tomorrow or the next day and see if you can
help them come up with an acronym.

Second method: Acrostics

Take the first letter of a series of words you need to learn and create a
sentence. In my Spanish classes, we have many acrostics (it's easier
to just call them mnemonics). One in particular is for "-GO" verbs in
the present tense (Harry Potter Teaches Cool Students - Hacer,
Poner, Traer, Caer, Salir).

I also remember an acrostic from an 8th grade math class: Old
Houses Are Houses Of Age - (Sine) - Opposite/Hypotenuse, (Cosine) -
Adjacent/Hypotenuse, (Tangent) - Opposite/Adjacent). Other friends of
mine from different schools learned the mnemonic SOACAHTOA.

Third method: Keyword

Take the word you want to learn, find a similar sounding word (or
similar spelling) and come up with a sentence that includes the
keyword and the meaning you're trying to remember.

This approach works beautifully in my Spanish classes. Let's say your
child wants to learn the verb "Dormir" (to sleep). You decide on a
keyword (we'll use dorm) and then you create a sentence. My class
came up with "Norm sleeps in the dorm."

When you add an illustration to this sentence, it helps your child
remember even more quickly, and retain it longer.

Why aren't mnemonics used more often in schools? That's a good
question. Levin, who's studied mnemonics for over 25 years and
understands their effectiveness better than most, considers it "a
mystery."

Anyone of these mnemonic techniques will work depending on the
material. It all comes down to finding the best one for your son or
daughter.

And they can be learned (and applied) in one night. That means your
child can improve their memory skills from one day to the next.

Related Articles: