Goose Creek CISD
Special Education
2012 - 2013
Districtwide Staff Development Conference
February 15, 2013
The mission of the
GCCISD Special Education
Department is to support the
campuses in order to nurture
inclusionary environments,
enhance student achievement,
and maintain compliant special
education programs.
Sterling Feeder pattern:
Lynn Walker, LSSP
Alice Ricks, Diagnostician
Memorial Feeder pattern:
Dr. Lisa McHaney, LSSP
Kay Brown, Diagnostician
Lee Feeder pattern:
Kawanza Dukes, LSSP
Angela Raithel, Diagnostician
The Interface
Academic, Emotional and Social Impact
Learning Objectives
 What is Working Memory?
 The role of working memory in
learning.
 Interventions and strategies to improve
working memory academically,
emotionally, and socially.
The Interface
What is “Working Memory”?
 “Working Memory supports human cognitive
processing by providing an interface between
perception, short-term memory, long-term memory,
and goal-directed actions. Working memory is
particularly necessary for conscious cognitive
processing because it permits internal representation
of information to guide decision making and overt
behavior. Fundamentally, working memory is one of
the main cognitive processes underlying thinking and
learning” (Lepine, Barrouillet, & Camos, 2005).
Examples of Working Memory
 Remembering a telephone number long enough to dial
 Following driving directions
 Remembering names of new people
 Remembering birth dates, anniversary dates, important future
dates
 Childhood memories
 Remembering the rules to languages, science, social rules,
norms and cultures
Working Memory …
 A man with no memory
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwigmktix2Y
 A woman who can’t forget
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoxsMMV538U
 Memory Master
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detail
page&v=p-j4WWko-4Y
Short-term memory (STM)
Working Memory (WM)
 Passively holds information
 Actively process it
 STM capacity is domain
 Less domain specific
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specific verbal and visual)
Not a strong relationship with
academic learning
Automatically activates
information stored in longterm memory
No management functions
Operates independent of
long-term memory
Retains information coming
from the environment
 Strong relationship with
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academic learning and
higher-level cognitive
functions
Consciously directs retrieval
of desired information from
log-term memory
Has some executive functions
Operations relies heavily on
long-term memory structures
Retains products of various
cognitive processes
Types of working memory
 Auditory working memory
 Visual-spatial working memory
 Semantic working memory
Executive Functioning
Is a set of mental processes that helps
connect past experience with present action.
People use it to perform activities such as
planning, organizing, strategizing, paying
attention to and remembering details, and
managing time and space.
Behaviors that maybe indicative of a working
memory weakness/deficit
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Poor sustained attention
Poor organizational skills
Partial or very limited recall of new information
Poor phonological skills
Poor reading fluency
Poor reading comprehension skills
Off-task behaviors
Misconceptions of social cues
Poor problems solving skills
Difficulty with multi-step directions or problem solving
Limited mental manipulation for the purpose of analysis,
cause & effect, inferences, synthesis, etc.
Intervention and Strategies
 Rote strategies – not as effective – not meaningful
 Rehearsal – basic memory strategy
 Relational – higher level working memory, increases the
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probability of long-term storage
Semantic Rehearsal – word list (create a story using all the
words/numbers/formulas from the list)
Chunking – divide and conquer making it more palatable to
retain and retrieve information
Paraphrasing – your interpretation of what the teacher said
Elaboration strategy- thinking aloud, uses material the
student is familiar with, use of prior knowledge and
reminders of prior knowledge
Identification and Assessing Working
Memory
 In the school setting the identification of a working
memory weakness/deficit is most often done by the
Educational Diagnostician and/or Licensed Specialist
in School Psychology.
Disorders/Disabilities in which working
memory has a role
 Attention Deficit /Hyperactivity Disorder
 Reading Disorder
 Math Disorder
 Writing Disorder
 Some emotional and behavioral disorders
 Seizure Disorder
 Traumatic Brain Injury
 Intellectual Disability
 Lesions on the brain
Memory Quiz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl
ayer_detailpage&v=mmyRhYnsF34
http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU
xRlH5_3WfLM5dPn9als6Qw&v=j
t9ppA-0Y4U&feature=player_detailpage
Questions and Answers