Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Remember My Name?

When I was old enough to begin learning my letters, having just left the developmental stage of infancy and ventured into the new horizons of early childhood, my mom decided it was time to teach me how to spell my name.
A B I G A I L.
It may not look difficult now, but as a new-to-this-world three year those seven letters were daunting, and seeing my name spelled out looked a bit more like this. . .
A
              I
                                      L
                       A
                                               G
                                                                      I
                                                       B 
. . . just a big jumble of some weird shapes. 
My mom, knowing this, devised a plan. She put the letters to music, and soon enough, they began to make more sense. . .


        B
I
        G
A
        I
L
spells Abigail.

and more sense. . .

A
B
I
G
A
I
L
spells Abigail.

until. . .

ABIGAIL spells Abigail. 

. . . and it stuck.  As I'd write my name on papers in preschool, the song would softly play in my head.

- - - -

With the advent of computers, a development theory known as Information Processing made its way to the forefront in development science (Lightfoot, 2013). Basically this model suggests that the brain is similar to a computer in the way in which it processes information, and accounts for the memory processing ability in humans (2013).
Something that must be remembered - the spelling of my name, for example - has to go through several different stages before it is, well, a memory.
When my mom first sang me the song I mentioned above, it became sensory memory. In other words, it was information that I received through my senses - in this case, through hearing - that will only be retained for an incredibly short period of time unless it is deemed important information (Meece, 2008).
Because my brain recognized that this information was something that should stick around for a while, it moved on to my short-term memory. In this imaginary room in my brain, the song I just heard is interpreted and more meaning is added to it; it becomes what is called a working memory (2008). Meaning, pulled from my long-term memory, is then attached to this new information (Lightfoot, 2013). I know that Abigail is my name, and this song is telling me that these strange sounds - these letters - spell my name. My long term memory also tells me that spell has something to do with the things words are made up of, so A B I G A I L must make up my name.
Finally, this information is stored in my long-term memory through the use of an encoding strategy, in this case repetition (Meece, 2008). By continually repeating the song my mom made up, I'm able to better understand the information so that I can better remember and retrieve it from my memory in the future.
As I grew up, I realized that putting important information into song form was a helpful way for me to remember it. In the Information Processing Theory, this is called metacognition, or the understanding a child has on his or her cognitive ability and thinking processes (Meece, 2008). As I grew, I gained a better understanding of my own ability to memorize and process information and began employing different strategies to help me in that process, like putting vital information to a tune.
Regardless of whether or not this strategy is a product of nature (Was I pre-wired to use this learning strategy?) or nurture (Does the fact that one of my earliest learning experiences employed this strategy make me more likely to use it myself?), it has certainly affected and shaped my cognitive development.





SOURCES:
Meece, J. L. & Daniels, D. H. (2008). Cognitive development: Information processing and intelligence theories. In Child & Adolescent Development for Educators (3rd ed) (pp. 185-250). McGraw-Hill Higher Education: New York, NY.
Lightfoot, C., Cole, M., & Cole, S. (2013). Physical and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood. In The development of children (7th ed., pp. 285-288). New York, NY: Worth.


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