Is Working Memory Affecting Your Child’s School Performance? What Parents Should Know
Is your child having difficulty with math word problems at school? Forgetting multi-step directions? Struggling to remember what they just read?
Sometimes, these challenges are not simply a matter of “not paying attention” or “not trying hard enough.” For some children, difficulties with working memory may be making everyday classroom tasks much harder.
As speech-language pathologists (SLPs), we know that working memory and language are closely connected. When a child has difficulty holding onto and manipulating information, it can affect everything from following directions and understanding complex sentences to solving word problems and organizing their thoughts.
What is Working Memory?
Working memory is the ability to temporarily hold information in your mind while using or manipulating that information to complete a task.
For example, imagine being told:
“Take out your math book, turn to page 42, complete problems 1–5, and circle the two problems you need help with.”
Your child needs to remember several pieces of information, keep them in mind, figure out what to do first, and carry out the directions, all while potentially ignoring distractions around them.
Working memory is part of a larger group of skills known as executive functioning, which also include skills such as attention, inhibition, cognitive flexibility, planning, organization, and self-monitoring.
Working memory is particularly important for children because so much of what happens in the classroom requires them to hold onto information while simultaneously thinking, understanding, solving, or communicating.
What Might Working Memory Difficulties Look Like at School?
Working memory difficulties can look different from child to child. Some common signs may include:
Difficulty following multi-step directions
Frequently asking, “What am I supposed to do?”
Forgetting part of a direction before completing it
Difficulty remembering information that was just presented
Trouble answering questions about something they just read or heard
Losing their place when completing multi-step assignments
Difficulty completing tasks independently
Struggling to organize thoughts when speaking or writing
Difficulty retelling a story in the correct sequence
Trouble remembering specific words or details
Difficulty taking notes while listening
Becoming overwhelmed when there is a lot of information to process at once
Difficulty remembering what they need to bring home or complete for homework
Trouble switching between steps of a task
Difficulty solving math word problems
These challenges can be especially noticeable as children get older and classroom expectations become more complex.
“But my child knows how to do the math!”
This is an important distinction.
A child may understand addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division but still struggle with a word problem because the task requires much more than knowing the math operation.
For example:
“Mia has 8 stickers. Her friend gives her 5 more. Then Mia gives 3 stickers to her brother. How many stickers does Mia have now?”
To solve this problem, a child has to:
Listen to or read the information.
Remember the important numbers.
Understand the vocabulary and sentence structure.
Determine what information is relevant.
Hold the information in working memory.
Decide which mathematical operations to use.
Complete the calculations.
Remember what the question is asking.
For a child with working memory and/or language difficulties, the challenge may not be the math itself, it may be holding onto and organizing all of the information needed to solve the problem.
Research has found meaningful relationships between working memory and children's performance in areas including reading and mathematics. In one large study of children ages 5–15 with learning difficulties, working-memory performance was highly correlated with reading and mathematics scores.
Working Memory and Language
Working memory and language are closely intertwined.
Children use working memory when they are:
Learning new vocabulary
Understanding longer or more complex sentences
Following spoken directions
Answering questions
Retelling stories
Learning grammatical rules
Remembering information from something they have heard
Connecting new information to what they already know
Research has consistently identified working-memory weaknesses in many children with language disorders. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis found that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) demonstrated significantly poorer performance than typically developing peers across several measures of verbal working memory.
Importantly, working memory difficulties do not automatically mean that a child has a language disorder, and not every child with a language disorder will have the same working-memory profile. A comprehensive evaluation is needed to understand each child's individual strengths and needs.
How Can Speech Therapy Help?
You may be wondering: “Isn't working memory a cognitive skill? Why would my child's speech therapist work on it?”
SLPs are uniquely positioned to address working memory when it affects communication, language, learning, and participation in everyday activities.
An SLP can evaluate how a child's working memory and language skills interact and determine how these difficulties may be affecting functional tasks at home and at school.
Treatment may focus on helping a child:
Follow and remember directions
An SLP may teach a child strategies for breaking multi-step directions into smaller pieces, identifying important information, and checking their work after completing each step.
Understand complex language
Children may learn strategies for identifying key words, breaking down longer sentences, and connecting information across sentences.
Improve comprehension
An SLP can help children learn to identify important details, organize information, make connections, answer questions, and summarize what they have heard or read.
Organize their thoughts
Visual organizers, verbal rehearsal, story maps, checklists, and other supports can help children organize information before speaking or writing.
Solve language-heavy academic tasks
Therapy can incorporate functional activities such as following classroom directions, completing multi-step assignments, answering comprehension questions, explaining reasoning, and working through language-based math problems.
Develop self-monitoring strategies
Older children can learn to recognize when they have lost track of information and develop strategies for getting back on track, which is an important part of becoming a more independent learner.
Current ASHA guidance recognizes working memory as a core executive-function skill and identifies SLPs as professionals who can screen, assess, and treat executive-function difficulties when they affect communication and functional participation.
When Should You Consider a Speech-Language Evaluation?
If your child consistently struggles to follow directions, understand classroom language, remember information they have heard, organize their thoughts, comprehend what they read, or complete language-heavy academic tasks, it may be worth looking more closely at their communication and executive-function skills.
Working memory difficulties can overlap with or occur alongside developmental language disorder, ADHD, learning disabilities, and other developmental differences, so it is important not to assume that one symptom has one specific cause. A comprehensive evaluation can help identify your child's individual strengths and areas of need.
Your Child Doesn't Have to Work Harder - They May Need Different Strategies
When a child repeatedly forgets directions, loses track of information, or struggles with multi-step assignments, it can be easy to assume they aren't listening or aren't trying.
But sometimes, the underlying issue is more complex.
Understanding why a child is struggling is the first step toward finding strategies that actually help.
At Garden State Speech Therapy our speech-language pathologists evaluate children's communication, language, and related learning skills to understand the whole picture—not just one isolated difficulty. We work with families to develop individualized therapy goals and practical strategies that can support success at home, at school, and in everyday life.
If you're concerned about your child's language, comprehension, working memory, or school performance, contact Garden State Speech Therapy today to learn more about scheduling a speech-language evaluation.
References
Boudreau, D. M., & Costanza-Smith, A. (2011). Assessment and treatment of working memory deficits in school-age children: The role of the speech-language pathologist. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 42(2), 152–166. ASHA Publications
Senter, R., Chow, J. C., & Willis, E. C. (2023). Speech-Language Pathology Interventions for Children With Executive Function Deficits: A Systematic Literature Review. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 54(1), 336–354. ASHA Publications
Niu, T., et al. (2024). Executive functions in children with developmental language disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Neuroscience. PubMed
ASHA Practice Portal. Executive Function Deficits. ASHA
ASHA Practice Portal. Spoken Language Disorders. ASHA
Singer, B. D., & Bashir, A. S. (2018). Wait…What??? Guiding Intervention Principles for Students With Verbal Working Memory Limitations. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 49(3), 449–462.