Do you ever wonder if your child’s auditory memory skills are up to par?

If you’re just joining me, discover a few signs of auditory memory difficulties here.

When helping the struggling learner in your life, I recommend exploring auditory memory challenges as one of the many possible root causes. Rule them in or rule them out. Either way, it’s important for you to know for sure.

How to Know

Determining a child’s reading level is relatively straightforward. You can give it a whirl yourself, utilizing various tools that measure reading ability. Or, try the simplest route. Ask your child’s teacher (if that doesn’t happen to be you, of course).

But how do you measure children’s auditory memory? How do you know if their ability to remember what they hear is strong enough to support academic learning?

I have two activities I’d like to introduce you to today. I designed them with the intention of moving you from this:

“I have no idea if my child is struggling with this. Auditory what?”

to this:

“My child’s auditory memory abilities are healthy and strong and no longer interfere with reading and learning.”

Let’s look at the first activity, Building Auditory Memory Skills with Repeat After Me. Whether you’re a trained educational therapist or simply a concerned parent, Repeat After Me offers you an easy way to measure auditory memory ability.

Don’t worry if Repeat After Me reveals an alarming truth, that your child can only recall 2 units of information instead of the recommended 4 units, for example. You’ll be able to improve this critical processing skill with straightforward tools and step by step, easy to follow instructions. (Also provided: recommended skill levels for reference.)

Learn more about Repeat After Me here.

Leveling Up

Once you’ve established your child’s auditory memory skill level with Repeat After Me you’ll want to move beyond the basics. Building Auditory Memory Skills with I Heard a Mixed Up Word helps students improve auditory memory skills in a fun, engaging way.

Kids love decoding mystery words. I Heard a Mixed Up Word lets kids unscramble a series of mystery words in a way that not only strengthens auditory memory but improves working memory and visualization skills in the process (also critical for learning).

Bonus: This activity requires quite a bit of concentration, which means it has the happy side effect of helping students hone their attention skills, too. Students who can focus? Always a good thing!

Both Repeat After Me and I Heard a Mixed Up Word allow children to gradually increase the level of difficulty. If they enjoy watching their hard work pay off, let kids color the progress tracking chart as their abilities continue to grow.

Learn more about I Heard a Mixed Up Word here.

Where to Start

• If you suspect that auditory memory weakness could be one of the many culprits in your child’s learning challenges, or…
• if you have never explored the idea and just want to know for sure, or…
• if you already know that auditory memory challenges are an issue but don’t know how deep the problem is,

then start with Repeat After Me.

When you’re ready to keep the skill-building momentum going,

advance to I Heard a Mixed Up Word.

And if YOU happen to forget people’s names the second that you hear them, don’t worry. Kids love trading places and playing the role of teacher. Under the guise of “here, let’s take turns,” you can practice, too!