What is a mnemonic??
“Mnemonics” comes from the Greek word meaning “from memory.” There are numerous forms of mnemonics, usually involving some kind of link or loci system, but they all have one thing in common. They dramatically improve recall. They are very powerful and can sometimes be retained in memory for a lifetime. Word lists that would normally be very difficult to retain in memory because they have no inherent organization can be turned into a mnemonic and instantly set for retrieval. Visualization is the key to success with mnemonics and this helps explain its popularity with dyslexics, who on average tend to be visual thinkers.
Since dyslexia is a condition in which “short-term memory” is impaired, any method that increases this will be preferred. The spelling process requires that the image of a word be held in the linguistic center of the left hemisphere of the brain. A retained image allows you to remember the correct sequence of letters so that you can write the word later. When word images cannot be held in memory, as occurs with dyslexia, spelling becomes impossible.
Initial word mnemonics
Mnemonics are immensely helpful here. For decades, children have been given sentence-style mnemonics to remember irregular words like “because.”
“Big elephants can always understand small elephants.” is a typical example. Taking the first letter of each of the words in the chant in exactly that order produces the correct spelling of “because.” Although this method is successful for spelling occasional words, as a system for remembering many words it has some weaknesses. Since this style of chanting has no reference to the word in it, this immediately reduces its effectiveness. Compare this with the initial word mnemonic. If you BEGIN the chant with the word to be learned, it becomes a completely different system.
“because elephants can easily add sums”
Immediately this song is related to the word “because” and that has many advantages. Hearing the word will act as a trigger to later remember the chant more easily. Since there are no guesses involved in matching the chant to the word, hundreds can be learned and committed to memory. Ultimately, any word can become a mnemonic, as long as it’s not too long. However, it is a particularly effective system for teaching the spelling of high-frequency words that typically contain 2-7 letter words.
Initial word mnemonics and homophones
Initial word mnemonics are also very effective for homophones. They capture both spelling and meaning at the same time. To give an example:
“buns eaten at dinner” spells the bread we eat, but “really exotic bred dogs” is the past tense of the verb to breed. Both spelling and meaning are learned at the same time. This is particularly effective in overcoming the confusion associated with homophones.
Multisensory aspects of mnemonics
Aside from the advantages noted above, initial word mnemonics are fully multi-sensory. Each song is a story that has meaning for the brain and stimulates the imagination. It is then illustrated and this consequently activates the visual cortex. When it is sung out loud several times, a connection is made with the auditory cortex. All of these factors work together to produce a really fast, effective and fun method that takes the stress out of spelling. Initial word mnemonics have restored confidence to struggling dyslexics and helped them reach levels and qualifications they never thought possible.
