A working memory deficit isn’t a focus problem, and the kids who have one are often paying more attention than anyone in the room. They simply run out of space. This post explains what is working memory, why it can fill up so fast and what the appropriate accommodations are. Hint: it’s not extra time.
Rather than provide a dry definition of working memory that you could obtain from AI let’s start with an analogy to describe working memory. Imagine your brain has a huge barn out back. That’s long-term memory. It holds everything you’ve ever learned, from your childhood phone number to every word of that song you wish you could forget.
But you can’t do anything in the barn (long term memory). When you actually need to use something, you carry it out of the barn and lay it on a workbench that’s outside the barn. That workbench is your working memory. It’s where work happens.
And notice I said work. Working memory doesn’t just hold something and it’s different from short-term memory which is what you use to hold an authentication number as you log into a website and promptly forget the numbers. Working memory is where you hold the phone number while you dig through your purse for a pen and tell your kid, for the third time, to turn down the TV volume.
This isn’t new information. In fact, two researchers, Baddeley and Hitch, described this back in 1974. If we continue with the analogy, the bench has a few parts. There’s an inner voice that repeats things to itself, like when you mutter a phone number, so you don’t lose it. There’s a mental whiteboard for pictures and places, like remembering where you parked at the grocery store. There’s a foreman who decides what gets bench space and what has to wait its turn. Baddeley added a fourth part in 2000: a spot where all of it gets stitched together into one scene.
I’m sure all the MDs and PhDs are shaking their heads at this description, but this post isn’t for readers with initials after their name.
Everyone’s bench is much smaller than you would imagine. Psychologist Nelson Cowan’s work suggests adults can juggle only three to five chunks of information at once. Children’s benches are even smaller, but they keep growing through the teenage years.
When the bench is full, things fall off. That’s the key idea. If it falls off, it doesn’t get put into the barn. It’s simply gone. That’s why your teen can forget something 10 seconds after hearing it. They didn’t lose it. The bench was full so the information never made it onto the bench.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that some kids have an even smaller bench than their classmates. In a large study published in 2009, Tracy Alloway, Susan Gathercole and their colleagues screened 3,000 children and found that about 1 in 10 had very low working memory. Teachers see this everyday but usually refer to the student as having a short attention span or being easily distracted.
That’s key! Going back to the analogy, from the outside, a full workbench looks a lot like not paying attention.
That’s what a working memory deficit really is. I don’t like the word deficit. It makes it sound like something is broken which isn’t true. Think of it not as a working memory deficit, rather as a smaller workbench. Same brilliant builder. Less counter space. And there are smart ways to work with that smaller workbench.
Often kids with dyslexia also have a smaller working memory. A 2018 analysis led by researcher Peng Peng pulled together almost 200 studies and found a real link between working memory and reading. From about fourth grade on, the verbal part of working memory (that inner voice), had the strongest connection.
This is important because when reading isn’t automatic, sounding out each word takes up working memory. A student with a smaller workbench uses all the space to decode so there’s nothing left for anything else. I sometimes see this when I tutor. A student sounds out a long word beautifully, but then has no idea what the sentence said. Of course not. The decoding used up the whole bench, and there was no room left to hold the meaning.
Now let’s talk about two more bench hogs you need to know about especially if you have an older child.
The first is note-taking. Think about everything a student does in class. They listen. They decide what matters. They hold it long enough to write. They figure out how to spell it. They need to keep listening, because the teacher didn’t stop talking. Researchers who study note-taking rank it among the most mentally demanding thing a student can do.
The second is stress because anxiety (stress) takes up space on the work bench space. For a high schooler, a working memory deficit can manifest as directions that get lost halfway through an assignment. Mental math mistakes on problems they truly know how to do. Brilliant ideas out loud, then a jumbled essay on paper. Homework they swear they wrote down. Granted everyone is different but for many of you I’m painting a mental picture that sounds too familiar.
The accommodation that most schools provide is extended time, and extended time definitely helps some kids. But let’s take a moment to think about what extended time actually does. It gives a full bench more minutes. It doesn’t make the bench less full. I’m going to provide a different analogy that addresses why extended time isn’t always the right accommodation for someone with a working memory deficit.
A car can drive 60 miles per hour, and a total distance of 300 miles on a full tank of gas. The tank of gas represents working memory. It will take the car 5 hours to drive the 300 miles. At the end of the 300 miles there is no more gas. You can give the car 10 hours but since there is no more gas, the car can only drive 300 miles. If you want to drive 400 miles, then you need to stop and fill up the tank with gas.
Now, schools expect cars to drive 80 miles per hour and travel 400 miles on a tank of gas because that is the distance the average car can drive (based upon their experience). The 504 plan recognizes that some cars may not be able to drive 400 miles in 5 hours. Some dyslexic cars drive 50 miles per hour, so it will take 8 hours to drive the 400 miles. They will get there on a single tank of gas but need more than 5 hours. Sometimes the car needs both, more time and to stop for gas.
When a student has a working memory deficit, or smaller workbench, extended time may not be the optimal accommodation. Remember that accommodation do not lower the bar; it simply changes how they get there. Let’s discuss different types of appropriate accommodations.
One advocacy tip before we move on. When you ask for these accommodations, tie each one to something in your child’s evaluation. If the testing showed a low Working Memory Index, say so, and connect it directly to the accommodation you’re requesting. A request with a reason attached is much harder to brush aside. If you’d like help putting it in writing, Wrightslaw’s book: From Emotions to Advocacy is a terrific place to start or reach out and we can work together to develop an appropriate accommodation plan. Click here to learn more about my 504 accommodations plan review.
Now let’s discuss three things a student can do on their own if they have a working memory deficit.
And here’s where you come in. Even though they will never admit it, teens copy what they observe far more than what they’re told. So write the grocery list on the fridge. Mention that you’re putting a reminder in your phone, so you don’t have to remember it. When offloading and chunking are part of your everyday routine, it stops feeling like a special fix for the kid who forgets, and it starts feeling like what smart, busy people do.
A working memory deficit doesn’t mean your teen is hopeless. It means they’re building with less counter space. Your child doesn’t need a bigger bench to succeed. They need the right tools, the right accommodations and a little practice clearing space after a certain amount of time.
Book a consultation and bring your child's latest 504 or IEP. We'll find the appropriate accommodations together.
Click HereWorking memory is the part of the brain that holds information while you’re using it. Think of long-term memory as a big barn full of everything you’ve ever learned, and working memory is the workbench right outside. You can’t build anything in the barn. You carry what you need out to the bench, and that’s where the real work happens. Working memory is different from short-term memory, which only holds a thought for a moment. Working memory holds it and does something with it.
It often looks like not paying attention, which is why it often gets mislabeled. Your teen may lose directions halfway through, make mental math mistakes on problems they know how to solve, or have brilliant ideas out loud that turn into a jumbled mess on paper. They may also swear they wrote the homework down. The information didn’t slip away. It never made it onto the bench in the first place.
Sometimes, but not always. Extended time gives a student more time. It doesn’t free up any space on a full bench. Accommodations that tend to help more include a copy of the class notes, written and numbered directions, reference tools like a formula sheet when memorization isn’t the skill being tested, and long tests or assignments broken into smaller sections with checkpoints. When you request an accommodation, tie it to a specific finding in your child’s evaluation, such as a low working memory index. A request with a reason attached is much harder to ignore.
Your quiet child doesn’t need a personality makeover. They need an adult who slows down long enough to see them. Discover how to build confidence in kids, from a teacher who was once the quiet kid nobody noticed in class. Recently on The Literacy Keys podcast, I sat down with
Middle school arrives like a sudden storm without any instructions or even recommendations about the right planner for teens. A few months ago, your child had one teacher, one cubby, and one primary folder. Suddenly, they are changing rooms, remembering locker combinations, discovering six or seven different teaching styles. Not
