Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome back. So one thing I talk a lot about on this channel is the importance of cognitive functioning and how that relates to learning. So the stronger our cognitive skills are, the better learners we become. So today's cognitive skill that I'm going to discuss is on auditory memory. We're going to talk about what it is, how it relates to learning, what happens when it's not strong, and things that can go wrong in that department, and also how to test it in yourself or in your child or your student. All right, so let's get started. My name is Janice. You're watching Sharp Cookie. On this channel, we talk about learning and problem solving. So please subscribe and hit the bell to be notified. So I'm a tutor. I've been working as a tutor for over five years and I've also tutored in a lot of different areas, and I spent a year just focusing on cognitive functioning, which is interesting and not a lot of tutors have done it, and that's where I realized the importance of cognitive functioning and especially auditory memory. So I'm going to show you how you can recognize whether your child or student has a weak auditory memory because this is going to affect all areas of learning and their life. Now the first thing I want to clear up is when people hear the word memory, they kind of put it under one large umbrella and they think, okay, I either have good memory, I have bad memory, and that's it. There's nothing else. When actually there are so many different types of memory, and many of us are strong in some and weak in others, and that just depends on which areas we've developed and nurtured and which areas we haven't. For example, you might have a great visual memory, meaning if you see a word spelled out, you can remember the spelling really well, but perhaps you have a poor auditory memory, which means if someone spelled out the word for you out loud, you would never remember. So that's just one example. Same thing with possibly working memory versus long-term memory. Some of us are really good at remembering addresses and phone numbers on the spot, but if you ask us a month later, we'll never remember, or the reverse. So all these types of memories are distinct skills from each other. So auditory memory is a very distinct skill, and I want you to think about memory in all of these buckets and not just memory. Now you can probably infer from the name itself that auditory memory has to do with our ability to hear information, retain it, and then be able to repeat it back later. This relates to being able to hear auditory instructions from a parent or from a teacher. So if you're one of those parents that feels like everything is going in one ear and out the other, it might actually be happening that way. With kids and students with low auditory memory, they literally cannot remember things that they hear. So of course in the meantime, you have to adapt. Perhaps write it down, have the child act it out, do other things where they're not having to remember things that they hear. Now some quick examples of auditory memory are, like I mentioned, remembering a telephone number or an address that you heard, listening to instructions and being able to repeat those instructions back, and another piece of it is actually being able to hear somebody's voice. So people with very strong auditory memory can actually hear someone's voice in their head. Someone with very poor auditory memory will only remember bits and pieces of what was said. If you're giving them steps to a process, they might do some and not others. This is really important to remember. This does not mean that the person or you're working with has low intelligence or is quote dumb. This is not true. Someone can have low auditory memory and be highly intelligent in other areas, and that's how we are as human beings. We have strengths in some areas and weaknesses in others. So don't think that somebody who is poor at maybe following auditory instructions is any less intelligent than somebody else. Now students that have been diagnosed with ADHD or dyslexia a lot of times have very poor auditory memory. Especially in dyslexia, they have a difficult time understanding the phonetics of words, which is why then they have a hard time with reading or spelling. So a lot of it relates to auditory memory, even though that might not be the first intuitive connection that you would make. Auditory memory is also strongly related to reading and mathematical skills. So they've done a lot of research in this area, and they found that kindergartners with very high auditory memory, and then they tested them later in fifth grade, found that they way exceeded in their reading and mathematical skills. So to me, that shows you how important it is to work on auditory memory so that then you become better in other areas of learning like reading and math. Now in the second part of this video, I'm going to tell you how you can test your auditory memory or that of your student or child. But quickly before we get into it, take a moment and let me know in the comments, what do you think about auditory memory? Is this a skill that's one of your strengths? Is this a weakness? Is this something totally new that you've never heard about? Or maybe you have experience with someone with dyslexia or ADHD and it makes a lot of sense. So let me know in the comments, what is your experience with auditory memory? Okay, now let's talk about the auditory memory test. This is very simple and you could do it with anyone. So a general rule of thumb is that at each year of age, you should be able to remember one additional number. So I'll give you an example. If you're three years old, that three-year-old should be able to remember three numbers in a row. So if you give them the number 972, they should be able to remember and repeat that back to you. A four-year-old should be able to do four numbers, five-year-old five, six-year-old six numbers in a row, seven-year-old seven. And at that point, you're considered to have an adult level of auditory memory because most adults can remember about seven numbers. So if you want to test an adult, you would give them a string of seven numbers all in a row and have them repeat that back to you. Now I want to reiterate this is auditory memory, so you have to do it out loud. And somebody might be very good with their visual memory. So if they see it written out, they can remember it. But if they hear it, they have a harder time. So it's only focused on auditory memory. And of course, if you want to improve your auditory memory, you can do this drill with your students. So if you want the student to improve every day for five minutes, give them numbers, a string of numbers to repeat. And as they get better, you can increase the numbers that you give them. And then you can even challenge them by telling them, hey, repeat these numbers backwards. So I would say to you, 972, repeat back to me reversed, and they would say 279. So those are all different types of activities you can do to improve auditory memory. So that's all I have for today. Please join me in my Facebook group. It's called Sharp Cookie Community. And on there, I give different puzzles and challenges every day. So please join us. Also, let me know if you're interested in online tutoring. I tutor a bunch of different subjects. So please email me at hellosharpcookie at gmail.com. Thank you so much for watching. Please subscribe if you enjoyed this video because I post new videos every week. All right, that's all we have for today. You're watching Sharp Cookie. My name is Janice. Bye.