Students with Down Syndrome may present with auditory memory difficulties.  Children with poor auditory memory skills can have problems with:

• Learning sequences
• Learning new vocabulary
• Retaining information
• Following instructions
• Difficulties with word order in sentences
• Retelling stories / events
• Describing series of events
• Time language (before / after)
• Rote sequencing (days of week)

Listed below are the main stages that children progress through in developing auditory memory skills. These stages do not relate to ages, but earlier skills need to be considered before teaching more complex / advanced concepts.

Stages of Auditory Memory Development

1. Can immediately recall what he/she has just heard.
2. Can immediately recall what he/she has just heard in correct order.
3. Can retain information long enough for it to be processed and acted upon.
4. Can store info for future use.
5. Can organise how to remember things, e.g. Visualisation, chunking sequences of info.

What can I do to help develop Auditory Memory Skills:

• Teach ‘first - next – last’  sequences (e.g. First, touch your nose; then, touch your toes; last, touch your ears).
• Teach ‘time’ vocabulary (e.g. yesterday, tomorrow, later, now)
• Teach concepts needed for sequencing tasks: before, after, next, between, last.
• Pre-teach necessary vocabulary relevant to the classroom theme.
• Teach sequences using pictures(e.g. steps in getting dressed, steps in making a sandwich)
• Cut up pictures to show a sequence and get the child to reorder the sequence.
• Use question cards to help children create stories (question cards: When did your story happen? Who was in your story? Where did they go? What happened? How did they feel?)
• Use a timeline (week/month) and mark events (regular , i.e. weekends, music, swimming classes & special events, i.e. birthdays, St Patrick’s Day)
• Visual timetable (use a visual timetable and display in picture format the order of activities for the day).
• Sequencing cards for activities, e.g. changing for PE (stages of dressing).
• Music sequencing skills (tap tambourine, blow whistle, ring bell – get children to listen and copy)
• Consistently and frequently check understanding of a discussion or instruction. Regularly requiring the children to verbally repeat back instructions would assist comprehension.
• If there is a sequence of commands to follow, pause between each one to allow the child time to process the information.
 

© Marinet van Vuren,  DSC 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this work can be reproduced in any form, or by any means without the express permission of the author or by Down Syndrome Centre info@downsyndromecentre.ie

Got a question for Marinet vanVuren? If so, drop her an email here.