Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment rote memorization disabilities

Anyone have a child diagnosed with this? Ds was diagnosed today with this and I don't really know what it means.

Thank you

I assume this means a child has a difficulty memorizing a random list of things, like state capitals, spelling, meaning of words. Never been diagnosed with this but it wouldn't surprise me. I have an extremely hard time with remembering people's names, or any other random list of stuff. This has made if very difficult to learn a new language. Back in H.S. when I was trying to take a language I would totally frustrate a tutor because I couldn't seem to remember a work she had only told me the meaning to only minutes before.

Although I see this problem in myself, I don't have a lot of clue what to do. I always just learned to compensate by being strong in other area's of learning. Math comes easy to me, so I learned "math facts" but understanding their patterns more than memorizing them. I didn't have to "memorize" science vocabulary if I learned to understand the science behind it. I could never understand what I was saying in the foreign language but I had an excellent understanding of the grammar. I can learn things if I extensively USE them, and then they are mine for good. I could probably recite all the different commands necessary to use unix to this day even though I haven't touched it in years.

Thankfully neither of my children have that problem.

My son has the mathematical reasoning of a 16 year old but can't memorize multiplication tables. He can remember a specific sticker I had in my car when he was a newborn up to a year old when we got a new car but he has to "ficus" to tie his shoes. He is 9 and after his results we now have to look at educational resources but I'm having a hard time understanding rote memorization stuff

Focus not ficus

This reminds me a lot of my trying to learn foreign languages. I spend some time in junior high in the UK in an international school and really WANTED to learn a foreign language but I just couldn't make the vocabulary stick. I would totally frustrate the teachers & tutors. I could NOT remember what words meant even if I tried with flashcards. Totally frustrated me & the teachers.

And speed/drill arithmetic tests were never my thing either but they weren't big at school when I was a kid. (I have a BA in mathematics so it didn't hold me back.) I have the most problems with the 7 times tables and to this day I have to think to come up with 7x8. I picture on my fingers for the 9 times tables. Have you taught your son finger trick to the 9's tables? I never learned to do without, I just figured out how to do it in my head.

Seeing the multiplication tables and patterns might help. Repetition, doing lots & lots & lots of problems might help. They don't need to be easy problems, just re-using and re-using the facts over & over again. Have you had him write the times tables out in a grid, I found this helpful working with my DS even though he does memorize well.

A bit like this but I'd have him make it himself. What you want if for him to figure out the patterns for himself. http://www.mathsisfun.com/multiplication-table-10-color.html

Like Bluemagic, I cannot "memorize" anything. It's worst with digits/values-- those, I can't even hold in working memory for long.

I can ONLY memorize information through writing it. So I recopied any lists of terminology, reaction schemes, etc about three times, and then I could more or less reproduce the visual information in the list.

I have to use a bit of random information (like the definition of an esoteric term, for example) about three times before it "sticks" for me, and I'm not as bad as I used to be.

Yes, recognizing patterns can help, or having a very strong visual, or auditory memory can. DD has to say what she wants to remember and to write it as well.

Oddly, it sounds like my weakness here is the opposite of bluemagic's-- I can recall vocabulary words far better than I can math facts or digits (like phone numbers). I'm amazing with faces, but horrible with names.

I remember things by making jokes or dirty mnemonics of them. That's the truth.

Timed math facts tests were a nightmare for me personally in elementary school.

I did go on to earn a terminal degree in a physical science, however, so it's not like it prevented me from learning higher math, or using it, either.

My personal feeling is that a child who understands the "why" of it all, and can more or less calculate what s/he needs probably just doesn't see any pressing need to make the (extraordinary) effort to memorize them, and I didn't force DD to. There's my confession. She learned them anyway over a period of about five years, but it wasn't until she was in Algebra I that she truly knew them cold. It happened through use, and through use alone. All the effort in the world wasn't going to get her there faster.

Honestly? I didn't really much see the point of rote memorization anyway. I still don't.

Interesting. I am bad at names and I couldn't remember chemical formulae until I was taught how the reactions worked - and don't get me started on biochemical pathways. BUT I have no trouble with maths facts and memories poetry for fun - some random stuff from my childhood I still remember. Memory is funny.

Yes he was diagnosed with dysgraphia as well