Multisensory Memory Strategies

I just met with a remarkable young woman-a dancer–named Sophie.  A psychologist friend of mine shared a few months back, about a high school Junior who spontaneously used kinesthetic strategies to help herself process and retain information during a testing session. During psychoeducational testing, Sophie spontaneously used gestures and finger techniques that enabled her to demonstrate her above average to superior intellect. 

Sophie, diagnosed in elementary school with dyslexia and language processing issues, spontaneously used a finger tapping technique to help her recall numbers forward and backwards during testing.  The fact she had laid down a kinesthetic memory of tapping the table with her fingertips (e.g., left ring finger for 2, right ring finger for 9, left pointer finger for 4 etc.), had been able to see her fingers move, and had a visual “trace” from which to retrieve auditory numbers that would ordinarily have been forgotten, enabled her to recall numbers in their correct sequence. 

To retain two words, such as crown and badge, while analyzing the words for their common thread, Sophie gestured a crown on her head and a badge on her shirt.  She did this until she was able to explain the relationships between the words. 

Sophie was surprised to learn these are techniques that SLPs and teachers invest time teaching students who have language processing or memory difficulties.  This automatic kinesthetic strategy just comes naturally to Sophie, which serves her in good stead!  What a treat to meet with a student who naturally understands the importance of multisensory learning. – Beth Lawrence, M.A., CCC-SLP