Mnemonics and the Very Young Children [microform] : A Position Taken / Susan Partridge

Mnemonic devices can help or hinder young children's efforts to learn. An example of the facilitative use of mnemonics is Lyn Wendon's Pictogram System, an approach to reading and spelling that pairs intrinsically interesting images with letters of the alphabet and their combinations. The sentence "Arthur Ar has a get-away car" illustrates her approach to making the "ar" combination memorable. Less well thought out uses of mnemonics with young children can have unexpected results, as when elementary school students learning to spell "wagon" added spokes to the "o" when told to remember that a wagon has wheels. While there is a place for mnemonics in teaching young children, the use of mnemonics should be based on the uniqueness of the child, the material to be learned, and the purpose for learning it. It seems wise to concentrate on good learning strategies, which are good memory devices, rather than on complex and ambiguous mnemonic devices. Mnemonics well used, however, help and encourage children to create their own memory devices, which, of course, are easier to remember. (RH)