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Attention Building Activities - Working Memory & Hemisphere Integration

Successful learners are fully engaged, can maintain attention, and activate both hemispheres of their brains. However, many young learners go through their daily classroom activities without being ...

Working Memory Definition, Facts, Symptoms and Strategies Infographic

Did you know that working memory is one of the strongest predictors of academic success? This powerful cognitive function acts as the brain’s command center, allowing students to hold, organize, ...

Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity

Mindfulness-based approaches to learning are attracting more and more teachers, therapists and school administrators. Mindfulness refers to being completely in touch with and aware of the present ...

Affordable Working Memory & EF Assessment for Students

Our working memory is a complex mental skill that allows us to process and learn new information.  It utilizes our sensory memory, assists our short-term memory, and communicates with our long-term...

Definition of Working Memory and Strategies for Success

The landscape of academic success is vast and complex, yet recent studies shine a spotlight on a critical cornerstone: working memory. This revelation positions working memory not just as a functio...

How to Improve Working Memory in Struggling Students

Did you know that a strong working memory is one of the best indicators of academic success?  In contrast, those who struggle with a weak working memory often find learning, accessing prior knowled...

Learn about Strengthening Working Memory with Free Sample Activities

Working memory is a core executive functioning skill and one of the most essential cognitive processes involved in learning. It serves as the brain’s temporary workspace — the mental notepad where ...

How to Strengthen Working Memory - Fun Free Activities

A strong working memory is now reported to be the cornerstone of academic success. It is a mental notepad where we post both visual and auditory information until we need to use it in short-term m...

3 Reliable Ways to Improve Attention and Working Memory

Did you know that working memory is often touted to be the best indicator of academic success? However, if a student is easily distracted, the academic content can be missed, or it can fade before ...

What Do Working Memory Problems Look Like in Kids?

With working memory reported to be the number one indicator of academic success, it's surprising that most teachers and parents know little about it. Working memory is like a mental dry-erase boar...

Working Memory: Definition, Symptoms, Impact on Academics, Solutions, and Freebie

Do you have students who constantly forget to bring a pencil, misplace homework, blurt out unrelated comments, or struggle to follow multi-step directions? These everyday challenges often trace ...

Dyslexia and Memory: Create Memory Palaces for Improved Learning

This blog shares my most recent video podcast, featuring memory and language expert Aaron Ralby. It is the sixth of many free video podcasts for Go Dyslexia! This was such an eye-opening conversati...

12 Memory Strategies That Maximize Learning

Most students have had the experience of knowing an answer, but they are unable to access the information in a stressful moment. This is a common difficulty when students are taking a test, as anxi...

Dyslexia Strategies: Improving Your Memory for Names

I think we are all familiar with the embarrassment of occasionally forgetting a person's name.  However, this is a common difficulty for individuals with dyslexia, and it is called word retrieval ...

Executive Functioning Card Game: Memory Master

I'm so excited to announce the release of my new Publication: Executive Functioning Game: Memory Master! It is the second of a series of four executive functioning games that I have been working on...

Memory Strategy: Hooking's a Fun and Memorable Way to Learn

As an educational therapist and learning specialist, hooking is one of the most valuable memory strategies that I teach my students. In fact, tedious study sessions can be transformed into a memora...

Free Visualization Game: For Improved Reading, Writing, and Memory

I recently finished a publication, Mindful Visualization for Learning,  that reviews the history and research behind visualization and then provides teachers with everything they need to assess and...

Alphabetizing Exercises Help to Develop Memory and Organizational Skills

Alphabetizing may seem to be a simple childhood task, but it plays an important role in building lifelong learning strategies. When students practice alphabetizing, they strengthen organizational...

The Key to Improved Attention and Memory for Optimal Learning

Did you know that visualization can be the key to unlocking memory abilities, attentional skills, and enjoyment for learning? Surprisingly, the use of mental imagery for learning is not a new conce...

Help for Struggling Readers: Make Learning Fun and Memorable

Many students struggle with the underlying cognitive skills that make reading both enjoyable and efficient. When areas such as visualization, tracking, visual and auditory processing, or memory are...

16 Ways to Make Lessons Memorable and So Much Fun

Making lessons both memorable and fun brings magic into any classroom. Instead of looking at a room of passive, bored faces, you can transform your learners into active, engaged participants. I wo...

Why Visualization Skills Offer Key Benefits for Students

Explore Dr. Erica Warren's blog on enhancing learning through visualization. Learn how to assess and develop students' visualization skills to improve memory, comprehension, and motivation. A valua...

7 Ways Students Can Use Their Inner Voice to Boost Grades

Did you know that students can significantly improve their academic performance by learning how to manage their inner voice? The inner voice consists of those internal thoughts and feelings we ex...

How Can Teachers Trigger Dopamine and Improve Learning?

Wouldn't it be great if a teacher's actions triggered neurotransmitters in the brains of their students that improved attention, motivation, and learning at large?  Many would say that this idea so...

What Does Executive Functioning Disorder Look Like?

Although there is no specific diagnosis for executive function disorder, or executive function deficits (executive functioning issues), the term is often used to describe the impairment in one's ...

More Games that Benefit the Brain: A Review

If you have been reading my blogs, you know I'm a big fan of bringing the fun factor into learning. In fact, did you know that many games can improve cognitive functioning?   Some Games Exercise an...

Listening Skill Activities and Discovering the Causes

It is easy for parents and even teachers to lose their cool when children do not listen to repeated directions. So, if kids aren’t making sense of what they hear, how can the learning process even ...

Why MPower Games Transform Struggling Learners

I am so excited to tell you about my publication, MPower: Cognitive Remedial Card Games! MPower offers a selection of multisensory sorting games that improve memory, processing speed, and multiple ...

Teaching Mental Math to All Elementary Students

Many people think that mental math is too difficult for elementary learners, but, in fact, youngsters have wonderful imaginations and capacities to visualize that can be utilized while doing mathem...

How to Teach Executive Functioning in Grades 1–6 (Fun + Practical Tips)

Discover how to teach executive functioning skills in a way kids love! This post shares playful strategies, engaging activities, and ready-to-use tools for elementary and middle school students—inc...

Executive Functioning Tools: Practical Ways to Strengthen Core Skills

Have you ever wondered how your brain manages to keep track of information, tune out distractions, and shift gears when plans change? These abilities are part of executive functioning, which I ofte...

Developing Executive Functioning Skills in Students: From Elementary to High School

Cultivating executive functioning (EF) skills is a vital and transformative part of a student's educational path. These skills, which include visual and auditory memory, attention, strategic planni...

Executive Functioning Games for Groups and Classes: EFUN For All Ages

I'm thrilled to announce that Executive Functioning Games for Groups and Classes is now available in print for the first time!   While many of you have already explored and enjoyed the digital ver...

The Best Educational Games for Family Fun |Good Sensory Learning

With kids and many parents at home, it's an ideal time to play some fun, educational games and connect with your loved ones.    What are the Different Types of Educational Games? Some games reinfo...

Cognitive Remedial Therapy for Student with Learning Disabilities: What is it?

The brain is much like the body. If we exercise areas that are weak or underdeveloped, we can overcome significant difficulties. In fact, we may even be able to turn a weakness into a strength.  J...

How Can I Improve My Executive Functions?

Executive functions, or what I like to call the conductor of the brain, are the processes of the mind gathering together and making sense of all the information we receive from our senses or ins...

What Resources are the Best for Online Tutoring?

Finding online learning and tutor resources can be a challenge. There is an overwhelming number of sites, apps, and products, and locating the best ones to help you create lesson plans or a tutorin...

Multiples and LCM Made Easy with Millipedes

Over the years, I have noticed that many students find it difficult to remember how to identify multiples and how to determine the least common multiple (LCM). The terms themselves often do not pr...

Executive Functioning Game: In or Out

I'm excited to tell you about my executive functioning card game: In or Out! It is the first of a series of executive functioning games that I created to build this vital skill. Card Descriptions:...

7 Executive Functioning Tools I Recommend to Students

Free (or Mostly Free) Resources That Support the Executive Functioning Brain After more than 25 years working as an educational therapist and executive functioning coach, I have learned tha...

Teaching the Alphabet: Tailoring Instruction

One of my favorite things about being a learning specialist and educational therapist is creating a unique approach for each of my students.  Each learner comes with a one-of-a-kind set of strength...

Boosting Reading Fluency Through Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN)

Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN), also known simply as rapid naming, is one of the most important cognitive skills you've probably never heard of. While it is often discussed in relation to reading fl...

How Dietary Changes Can Improve Learning Disabilities and ADHD Symptoms

Can what we eat truly influence learning, attention, and executive functioning? For many parents, educators, and professionals, this question feels both hopeful and controversial. Yet growing re...

The Four Types of Sentences: A Fun and Easy Approach

Learning about the four types of sentences can feel challenging and uninspiring for many students. When instruction relies heavily on definitions and worksheets, learners may struggle to stay eng...

Midterms and Finals: Free Strategies and Handouts for Success

For many students, midterms or finals are right around the corner, and learning how to plan for these comprehensive exams can be key to helping them manage test anxiety and achieve the desired grad...

Reasonable Accommodations for Students with Executive Functioning Challenges

Unlock student success with practical accommodations for executive functioning challenges. Explore strategies to boost focus, organization, planning, and adaptability!

Episode 22: Our Personal EF Hacks Working Memory - The Executive Function Brain Trainer Podcast

In this episode, Erica and Darius share their favorite working memory “hacks”—practical strategies they use in daily life to capture, hold, and process information more efficiently. They revisit Ba...

Episode 4: What is Working Memory and How Can We Strengthen This Skill? - The Executive Function Brain Trainer Podcast

In this episode, Erica and Darius break down working memory as the brain’s active “mental workspace”—the place where we hold information in awareness, manipulate it, and decide what gets stored, us...