“It was the longest seven minutes of my life,” my friend Kim said as she described the time her 3-year-old son got lost at Macy’s. He loved hiding in clothing racks—a fun game until he exited on the wrong side of the rack and wandered around for her. While Kim stood at the customer service desk, willing the clerk to move faster and call security, her phone rang.
She ignored it, of course. Her son was missing. A minute later, he came around the corner, tear-streaked face, holding the hand of a stranger who said, “There’s Mommy! We tried calling you.” Turns out, Kim’s son knew her cell number and was able to recite it to the woman. Your kids are never too young to learn your number, along with four other critical bits of information. Here’s what they are and how to teach a toddler to memorize them.
5 Things Your Child Needs to Memorize
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recommends that kids learn their full name, address, parents’ names, and a parent’s phone number by the time they enter kindergarten. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends children as young as 4 know how to dial 9-1-1 in an emergency.
If you have a pre-kindergartener who doesn’t know any of these five facts, don’t panic. Kids absorb information quickly, and knowing just one of them is better than nothing! So try working on one of these techniques a little every day.
6 Tools to Help a Toddler to Memorize Important Information
1. Sing it out.
“Who’s the leader of the club that’s made for you and me?” It’s not M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E anymore. Now it’s your phone number! 5-5-5, 7-2-0, 8-1-2-3-MOM! Henry L. Roediger III, professor of psychology at the Memory Lab at Washington University in St. Louis says music provides a structure that’s key to unlocking information stored in the brain, so use it to your advantage.
Not a Mickey fan? You can also try the tune and repetition of “Frère Jacques” to help your child memorize your number or address.
2-6-0 (repeat)
West Elm Street (repeat)
Atlanta, Georgia (repeat)
30315 (repeat)
(You might have to get creative with the rhythm to fit the syllables, but I’m confident you can make it work!)
2. Hang it up.
One friend told me she wrote her family’s home address and her cell number on a piece of construction paper and push-pinned it to the wall next to her daughter’s bed. After tuck-in, her daughter would stare at it, and after a few nights, she could recite it.
A study by the University of Notre Dame found that going to sleep right after learning something helps you recall it. Bonus—when your child’s staring at your number on the wall, it could help her eyes get heavy so she’ll fall asleep faster.
3. Touch it.
You don’t ask your toddler to recite colors from memory. You build with “bright blue blocks” and squeeze a “squishy yellow ball.” We use tactile learning to teach our kids everything else, so why not use it to teach your toddler to memorize important information?
Sit with him and put cheerios in piles that correspond to the digits in your cell number. Get letter magnets and work together to spell his first and last name on the fridge.
4. Talk about it.
When my friend Melissa’s 4-year-old daughter, Lexi, said, “Melissa! Can I have another waffle?” I held back laughter. Melissa rolled her eyes and said, “I’m trying to squash this habit, but hey, at least she knows my name!”
Melissa’s right. At some point, Lexi heard Daddy call Mommy “Melissa.” Now, if Lexi ever gets separated from her parents in public, Lexi can share that important detail with an officer or a safe person. Let your kids hear you and your husband call each other by your first names occasionally.
5. Act it out.
When I say to “dial 9-1-1,” what do you envision? Picking up a landline and punching in a number? In reality, your child would have to find your cell phone, and either unlock it and dial, or she’d have to be taught your phone’s shortcut. (Currently, on both Android and iPhones, you press the power button five times or more.)
It’s not common for a small child to have to dial 9-1-1, but it does happen. Let her practice on your phone without sending the call through. Or practice on a play phone.
6. Play it.
Use sidewalk chalk to draw a giant keypad on the driveway. Have your child toss a beanbag or rock to the digits in your phone number or street address.
You could draw a hopscotch grid with your phone number in the squares. As your child jumps from one spot to the next, have her say the number. It’ll be an extra challenge when she’s standing on one number and has two options to jump to, so be sure to cheer her on.
What tricks for how to teach toddler to memorize important information have worked for you?
