How do you deal with low retention issues in learners?

Ten-year-old Jasmine, a Primary Five pupil, would almost forget everything she learned in class.
This was seen in her poor academic performance in every examination, test or quiz. Her teachers discovered later that she was not really a dull student but her ability to retain what she had learnt was low. Her worried parents were asked to get her a teacher to coach her on topics afresh and also try to memorise most of the lessons with her.

Jasmine’s performance has since improved as seen in last term’s performance. And because she learns through a different style and pace from her other classmates, the teachers must adopt a different approach, not just for her, but the class. Forgetfulness is to some extent very common in our daily lives.

It is possible for an appointment to skip your mind, to lose track of time or forget your keys in the padlock. However, when it becomes too much, it is often cause for concern.

In a class setting for example, a student who often puts up their hand but forgets the answer the moment the teacher picks them, answers before raising their hand, cannot follow simple instructions, or always seems absentminded is likely to have low retention.

Sometimes, this is a major cause of poor academic performance and often, parents tend to rush to combat the performance instead of searching for the cause.

How our mind works
While explaining how a child’s memory works academically, in his article; 15 memory exercises for forgetful children, Dr Mathew Cruger, a clinical psychologist at the Learning and Development Centre at the Child Mind Institute, USA, says: “In reading, working memory aids our comprehension, making it possible to organise and summarise the text and connect it with what we already know. In writing, it lets us juggle the thoughts we want to get on paper while keeping the big picture in mind.

In Maths, working memory lets us keep track of numbers and operations throughout the steps of a problem,” Dr Cruger states.
He adds: “The stronger a child’s working memory — the longer they can retain and work with new material — the better their chance at remembering it, for the next hour, the next day, or longer.”

He further notes that when your child seems not to know something he once knew, their problem may be that of retrieving information that is; pulling it out of long-term memory. Adding that without the ability to build on material learned in the past, learning new material becomes frustrating and slow.

Causes and symptoms
Grace Namulindwa, a psychologist at Peace Centre for Counselling and Psychology, says forgetfulness can be caused by attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD).

On the one hand, she explains that this (attention-deficit) disorder exhibits symptoms such as; failure to pay attention or when a child is easily distracted.

“They can experience trouble listening even when spoken to directly, or may not be able to complete work, and their work is susceptible to being filled with a lot of mistakes,” she explains.

On the other hand, Namulindwa says hyperactive-impulsive disorder is characterised by fidgeting, difficulty staying seated or in one place, running around and trouble staying quiet, calm and is usually too talkative.

A child may experience one of these disorders and thus may exhibit either of these symptoms, or they may be experiencing both disorders and thus very likely to exhibit symptoms of both, Namulindwa adds.

“However, different situations trigger different symptoms that is why a parent may not be able to know that their child has a problem until they probably start school. This is because home is a free environment, with less pressure and more tolerant. School on the other hand is more rigid, governed by stringent rules, and such an environment may make the symptoms more pronounced,” she says.

Similarly, when interacting with subjects they enjoy, students may not show these symptoms like they would if they do not enjoy the subject. Namulindwa says this is similar to how students may experience changes in mood, energy, and motivation hourly, daily, in specific cycles, or seasonally.

Health condition
Furthermore, Julius Oyeyo, a senior occupational therapist at Tunaweza Children’s Centre, adds that away from medical diagnoses such as ADHD, other causes of forgetfulness may range from underlying conditions such as the psychological state of a child, environmental factors such as domestic violence or child abuse.

“Other factors include sleep problems such as lack of enough sleep and sleep disorders or interruption of the child’s sleep patterns. Other times, it could be lack of interest in the topic being discussed in class, medications that make children drowsy and sleepy such as Risperidone, stress that interferes with a child’s focus on the topic at hand and depression,” Oyeyo says.

Additionally, he says environments that distract children; for example where a child has divided attention between looking at passing vehicles and attending to the teacher, inactiveness of the brain, for example when a child does not participate in answering questions in class making them dormant can cause forgetfulness.

“On the side of the teacher, use of languages or terminologies above the child’s level, speaking very fast while delivering content in a lesson or giving too much content in a short time can lower a student’s retention,” the therapist says.

Signs and symptoms may vary depending on the cause but these are similar to those of ADHD.

It is also critical to note that failure to work on the causes of forgetfulness or seeking treatment where necessary makes schooling and learning difficult for a child, makes it hard for them to socialise and lowers their self-esteem.

Overcoming forgetfulness
Oyeyo says to help with memory, parents, teachers and therapists have to work with the child but also modify the environment to enhance learning and improve memory.

“The therapist may need to find out the cause of the poor retention problem so that the root cause can be dealt with,” Oyeyo emphasises, mentioning some of the therapeutic measures and ways of overcoming forgetfulness.

For instance, he advises the use of memory games such as puzzles, cards, among others to stimulate thought, learning and memory.

“Use of activities such as sorting to help the child with concentration and attention, since their mind will be concentrating on sorting things accordingly. Additionally, labelling the environment within which the child is helpful,” he explains.

In a school setting for example, teachers can label places, items or activities with either words or colours so that the child interacts with them daily and things stick in their memory.

For teachers
To Oyeyo, teachers must use visual schedules or timetables because visuals are easier to interact with by such children. Furthermore, a structured learning environment is easier to boost memory.
For example, he advises that any and all distractions from the learning environments should be removed to boost concentration.

He adds that after you discover that the child has low retention, it is important that they sit in beneficial spots/places in the classroom where they can be easily monitored and followed up by the teacher.

And as the teaching takes place, the teacher should keep asking the child some questions to keep them alert. In addition, teachers ought to simplify the content to suit their learners’ capacity but also speak slowly as they teach, using clear, simple and understandable language.

To arouse interest, Oyeyo advises that children are rewarded upon accomplishment of tasks. For example appreciating them when they finish their work, or when they remember things that they learned.

“Other children may need medical interventions depending on the severity of the condition. Note that a child may benefit from one or more interventions and it is also very important for teachers to keep every child active in learning through asking and answering questions. While teaching, relating content/information to daily life helps a child’s memory. For example use of acronyms or relating colours to objects. Like yellow can be related to bananas, or the oval shape to an egg,” he concludes.

It is important that those who manage learners are keen on seeing the various challenges learners may possibly have that affect their performance.

Tips to combat forgetfulness

Spaced learning. Spaced Learning is the process of repeating content with distractor activities inserted as a key part of the training. A distractor activity is used to take the learner’s mind off the task at hand. It can be anything from exercise to a quiz.

Spaced repetition. The brain likes to try and keep itself tidy. This means that if information is not used, it is cleared away, so if you want to keep knowledge in your brain, you need to make sure it is used. This is why spaced repetition is important. It is the process of refreshing knowledge on a regular basis.

Massed learning. Massed learning is what the bulk of students do the night before an exam: cram! Although the learner may be able to temporarily recall the information, the likelihood is they will have forgotten the majority of the info after a few days. It may be effective for exams, but not so much for job training as it won’t stick in the long-term memory. (Source: growthengineering)

Tips for teachers
•Reward children upon accomplishment of tasks such as recalling what was taught.
•Teach using relatable information in daily life.
•Use memory games such as puzzles, cards, to stimulate thought, learning and memory.
•Use activities such as sorting to help the child with concentration and attention.
•Label places, items or activities with either words or colours so that the child interacts with them daily.
•Use simple language or terms that a child can easily understand.
•Do not speak so fast while teaching.