Working memory and language

Also called Verbal working memory, Phonological loop, Short-term memory, Auditory memory

Holding a sentence in mind long enough to act on it. When it is limited, long instructions fall off the end, and the fix is on the speaker's side.

What it is

Working memory is the mental workspace where you hold information for a few seconds while you use it: the phone number between reading it and dialling it, the first half of a sentence while the second half arrives, the three things you were told to fetch. Verbal working memory is that workspace for words, and it's what a listener uses to follow speech and a speaker uses to build a sentence.

It's small in everyone and smaller in some. Young children hold two or three items; adults about four. When it's full, the earliest items fall out, which is why the child sent for "your coat, your bag and your reading book" comes back with the reading book.

Who it can help

Anyone who gives instructions, which is every parent, teacher and carer. Reduced working memory is common in children with developmental language disorder, dyslexia, ADHD and Down's syndrome, and in adults after brain injury or with dementia. It's also stretched to breaking in every AAC user, who has to hold their intended sentence in mind while finding each word on a screen, one at a time, while the conversation moves on.

It is not the same as not listening or not caring, and it doesn't respond to being told to try harder.

How it works

The model most people use has a phonological loop, which holds speech sounds for a couple of seconds and refreshes them by silent rehearsal, and a central executive that decides what to attend to. Language processing draws on both. Understanding "before you sit down, put the cup on the table" means holding the whole thing, then reordering it, then doing two actions. Producing a sentence means planning it, holding the plan, and executing it word by word; each word retrieved is a load on the same system.

Training working memory directly, with memory games and apps, has a poor track record: people get better at the game and not at anything else. What works is reducing the load: fewer items, shorter sentences, and moving information out of the head and onto paper or a screen.

AAC is a working-memory aid as much as a speech aid. A sentence strip that shows the words chosen so far means the person doesn't have to hold them, and a visual timetable holds the day so nobody has to.

Getting started

Give one instruction at a time, in the order it should happen. "Coat on. Then bag." Not "before you get your bag, put your coat on".

Write it down, draw it, or show it. A list of three pictures beats a spoken list of three every time. Now and next boards are working memory on a card.

For an AAC user, make sure the words already chosen stay visible until the message is spoken, and never clear the message for them. Give them time to finish the whole thought before responding to the first word (wait time).

Where to get help

Speech and Language UK covers memory and listening in its resources for schools. The British Dyslexia Association explains working memory in dyslexia and what classrooms can do. For adults after brain injury, Headway. An educational psychologist or speech and language therapist can assess it formally.