After a two-week break from homeschooling, our youngest daughter doesn’t seem to recall the last six months (or more) of knowledge and skills we practiced. We know she struggles to remember things, but the regression startled us.
Yes, I realize it is late June and the school year has ended, but we know our daughters lose knowledge during long breaks. They can lose a half-year of academic experience during a summer. We didn’t realize how much knowledge they might lose after only a week or two.
We use daily review workbooks that feature a variety of problems in each subject. We do this to reinforce skills from earlier in the school year. For example, the mathematics daily practice sheets have five problems. There might be an addition problem, a pattern to complete, a clock to read, a table to interpret, and a basic grouping exercise. The daily review should help her retain previously learned skills while developing new skills.
Online activities are also meant to reinforce her knowledge and skills. Adventure Academy, IXL, and Khan Academy might be helping retain past materials, but I’m uncertain after this two-week break. Though she has a Kindle, she rarely uses IXL or Khan Academy on the device. We have to sit nearby and watch her to make sure she reviews materials.
Learning disabilities and neurodiversity often include memory challenges. With ADHD and other diagnoses, Anne lacks any semblance of an attention span and she certainly doesn’t remember things day to day. If she doesn’t repeat a task daily, the skills and knowledge to do the task vanish.
I’m no expert, but my understanding is that working memory, short-term memory, and long-term memories use different parts of the brain. We might only need to recall a passcode number for ten seconds. Working memory helps us through those “quick use” tasks: do it and forget it. Then we have short-term memory, such as studying for a test in school.
Long-term memory comes from recalling information. Those tests in school add up to long-term memories. Practicing a task repeatedly also reinforces long-term memory.
We don’t believe Anne is merely “lazy” or “unfocused.” She has ADHD, which isn’t something she can magically overcome. But, there’s more to this than ADHD. Her sister and I have ADHD and we’re both autistic. We struggle a bit with memory, but not like Anne does.
Anne likely needs a neuropsychological evaluation, which includes testing working memory and short-term memory. If she has memory problems, Susan and I need to know. Sadly, memory impairments would explain why she forgets information taught only the day or the week before.
Until we gain more insights into why her memory fails, the best I can do is review materials with her again, and again. I doubt we’ll catch up to where she was in a month, but we might be able to catch up by the start of the school year. Sadly, I doubt she’ll actually complete the second-grade goals before the middle of third grade.
We need a better plan for any future breaks, too, so this doesn’t keep happening.