| Child’s Age | Memory Capabilities |
|---|
| Under 2 years | Infants remember actions and routines that involve them. Memory is implicit, triggered by sights and sounds (an interactive toy, a caregiver’s voice). |
| 2-5 years | Words are now used to encode and retrieve memories. Explicit memory begins, although children do not yet use memory strategies. They remember things by rote (their phone number, nursery rhymes) without truly understanding them. |
| 5-7 years | Children realize that some things should be remembered, and they begin to use simple strategies, primarily rehearsal (repeating an item again and again). This is not a very efficient strategy, but with enough repetition, automatization occurs. |
| 7-9 years | Children use new strategies if they are taught them. They use visual clues (remembering how a particular spelling word looks) and auditory hints (rhymes, letters), which provide evidence of the development of brain functions called the visual-spatial sketchpad and phonological loop. Children now benefit from the organization of things to be remembered. |
| 9-11 years | Memory becomes more adaptive and strategic as children become able to learn various memory techniques from teachers and other children. They can organize material themselves, developing their own memory aids. |
| Source: Based on Meadows, 2006. |