Read Ebook: Miller's Mind training for children Book 2 (of 3) A practical training for successful living; Educational games that train the senses by Miller William Emer

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ization is applied to the memory. The child may possess the knowledge, but practice is the only way to make it most useful. This same kind of exercise should be continued and will later lead to many practical applications.

Three Steps Necessary

All educational progress has three steps, To Know; To Do; To Be. What a child becomes as he grows to manhood depends upon what he DOES, with what he KNOWS.

Knowing is the first essential, but without the doing there is little result. The purpose of this book is memory development.

Sharpen the Tools

Your experience has proven that poor, weak impressions are recalled slowly and with difficulty. At the same time when you succeed in recalling a poorly made impression it is indistinct, it lacks that clear definiteness which brings assurance and confidence. To overcome this you need to sharpen the tools with which the impressions are made upon the brain. You cannot expect the best results from untrained senses any more than a carpenter can expect to do a fine quality of work with dull tools.

The senses can be sharpened and improved as you have seen in the First Book, but practice is the whetstone and every stroke will produce its proportionate result; without it you can not expect to become proficient in anything. The methods by which the senses can be trained are suggested in the First Book, and if they have been overlooked, or slighted, you can now see the importance of paying proper attention to them.

Continue the Memory Pictures

In the same manner in which you learned the first twenty words fix the following in mind. Begin with the last object of the previous list, Piano and add the next one, Spoon.

Now, add to Spoon, Road. See a Spoon with arms and legs running down the Road. Make a real cartoon of it. Continue to picture the words in pairs, always dropping the first when adding a new one. Now take Road and Picture; Picture and Desk; Desk and Window; Window and Apple; Apple and Book; Book and Door; Door and River.

Stop a moment and review these Memory Pictures, first in pairs as Piano and Spoon; then as a list. Now go over the list backwards.

Add more words and be sure you stop each time to see a clear, definite picture. You must fix your attention upon it for a moment, use motion, exaggeration and the unusual.

Picture River and Dress; Dress and Hammer; Hammer and Ball; Ball and Train; Train and Gun; Gun and Moon; Moon and Curtain; Curtain and Pepper; Pepper and Bed; Bed and Scissors.

Review the series as before, those pictures which come slowly should be improved. With the book closed, start with House and repeat the entire list. See each picture clearly before you speak the word, even though you may feel sure what the following word is, see the picture first, this will insure accuracy. Then begin with Scissors and go through the series of pictures backwards working your way, picture by picture, back to House. Take time to be accurate, do not try to go rapidly at first. See each picture and try to see it more clearly, adding all the detail you can. Mental exercise is necessary to development. See that you perform this one often and accurately.

Have Learned Forty Words

When the child can say the list he has learned a series of forty words which he can repeat forward and backward. These words are unassociated and would be difficult to learn by the old cumbersome method of repetition. Yet the feat is accomplished easily by the application of these simple and natural principles.

Be Gratified But Not Satisfied

Do not be satisfied that these simple facts, and the use which has been made of them, has proven resultful. Ideas are only of value because of the profit which comes from their continued use. Prove their worth to your utter satisfaction and then by continuous effort make them a part of the mental makeup. Become thoroughly familiar with these principles and see that the child knows just how to proceed in the use of them. Remember it is the visual faculty you are cultivating for great future usefulness, not merely learning a list of words. Review these pictures many times, use the same ones, do not make new ones.

Avoid the mistake of seeing only one object at a time; always see two, as the House and the Clock, the Clock and the Flowers. This causes one picture to recall the next, because the object appears in two pictures, or is associated with two objects. One by natural mental operations recalls the other.

For further practice and development add to the list of forty words now learned, some of those following, or make a list of your own. Any words will do, picture them two and two and review them after you have added ten or so.

List for Memory Exercise

House Spoon Fire Brush Pail Clock Road Hose Salt Ice Flowers Pencil Box Paper Sugar Circus Picture Bridge Button Porch Soldier Window Bell Tooth Log Church Apple Grass Sack Pump Rocks Book Soap Letter Rope Auto Door Boat Ring Barrel Shoes River Towel Pipe Corn Dishes Dress Pins Street Board Wagon Hammer Cannon Spool Spoon Table Ball Ladder Penny Shovel Carpet Train Cotton Comb Leaf Fence Gun Bicycle Umbrella Shell Bread Moon Ribbon Chimney Bank Walk Curtain Coat Swing Hat Lamp Pepper Hair Sled Cow School Bed Stove Rake Bat Store Scissors Bottle Fish Tree Piano Chair Pie Nail String

To Develop Definite Pictures

Some persons have difficulty in making their pictures definite enough to avoid confusion between objects of similar shape. Overcome this difficulty by teaching the child a few lists of objects somewhat similar in shape. This will require making clear and definite pictures. The exercise following is a good one for this purpose. Visualize the following list and see to it that the pictures are definite, so that they can be recalled in proper sequence, either forward or backward.

Exercise for definite Visualization

Papa Girl Grandpa Grandma Boy Uncle Sister Brother Woman Mama Man

Animal Lists

The same kind of practice can be gotten by the use of lists of animals, and at the same time another result may be attained. The child must learn just what the animal looks like before he can picture it. In learning these animal lists use the dictionary or encyclopedia, or better still, good books on natural history, and show the child the picture of each animal with which he is not familiar. Teach him all that you can regarding each of these different animals. He will then be able to picture them clearly and retain and recall them without difficulty.

Memory Exercise

Dog Wolf Mule Lamb Lion Camel Giraffe Bear Alligator Sheep Cat Pony Deer Tiger Colt

Memory Exercise

Rabbit Beaver Frog Muskrat Badger Mouse Mink Mole Chipmunk Skunk Squirrel Rat Fox Coyote Possum

The Law of Association

The first requirement of memory is to make a strong impression upon the brain, and this we have seen is accomplished by visualization. We concentrate the strongest of our senses upon the thing we wish to remember and thus make the strongest impression.

The second necessary step is the ability to recall the impression at will. This is equally important in memory and is made possible by the Law of Association. Prof. Kay states that, "Association is the means by which what is in the memory is recalled and brought again before consciousness."

Things which are impressed upon the mind, or which are active in the mind at the same time, will return together, one will suggest or recall the other. A voice, a sound, a sight will often recall a long train of events. One event will recall another that took place at the same time, or in the same place, or one similar in detail. These associations are easily formed though you may be unconscious of the fact at the time. When one of the associated facts is in your mind it becomes the means by which the other is brought again into your consciousness.

The visual picture is the strongest impression that can be made upon the brain, but to be able to recall a new impression at will, it should be linked or associated with some already familiar picture which is easily recalled, and this will bring the associated impression with it.

In the visual exercise in which a list of words was learned, beginning with House, this principle was used. The strong impression was made upon the brain by seeing the House. You also made a strong impression of the Clock, by seeing it, but in order to remember that the word Clock follows the word House the two were associated together by seeing them in the same picture. This is an example of two things impressed upon the mind at the same time. When you see the House it brings the Clock into mind. If you wish to recall what word follows House see the House, and the picture association will supply the second object.

The use of this Law of Association made it possible for you to recall the list of objects. To be easily available the objects must be linked together as strongly as possible, and this is accomplished by the associated picture.

Association is one of the fundamental laws of mental activity, the use of which is absolutely essential to memory operation. In the pages following you will notice the application of this same principle, always using the visual method because of its unusual strength and accuracy.

Much has been written on the subject and some memory courses dwell on it at great length. There are just two essentials to be always kept in mind:

First, to be able to recall the new fact at will it must be impressed upon the mind in association with some familiar knowledge that will be easily recalled.

Second, the visual picture is the strongest association, therefore the most lasting and easily remembered and at the same time it can be used for all needs.

This law of association must be used continuously, without it there can be no accumulation of knowledge or memory. Its operation is simple and need not be in the least confusing.

Reminder Pictures

Forming a Health Habit

Believing in the value of a glass of water taken before meals one person made a picture of a large glass of water covering a greater part of the dining table, and when coming to the table he saw himself spill the glass of water. It is essential to have two objects in the picture--one, the thing you wish to be reminded of doing; and the other, a familiar scene which you are going to see at the time. In this case, when the person sees the table, which is half of the picture, it brings back into consciousness the large glass of water. This reminds him of drinking the water before sitting down to the meal.

A lady had been forgetting to get a certain rug which had been put away in a dark closet, and which she feared might be injured by the moths if it was not taken out and used. As is often the case in such circumstances, she thought of this rug many times, but always when it was inconvenient to get it. She made a picture of the door of the closet in which the rug was stored and also of herself passing this door; the door flew open and the rug jumped out into the hall at her feet. Later, when she was passing, seeing the closet door it reminded her of the rug and she stopped, opened the door, took out the rug and thus attended to the matter which she had been forgetting.

A business man had been forgetting to telephone an associate. He made a picture of the desk in his office, and when he rolled up the top of the desk the friend jumped out and scared him. This picture was made in the library of his home in the evening. Next morning when he saw the desk the rest of the picture came back to his mind and he took up the telephone and attended to the matter.

These pictures may include more than one object, or even more than one errand. What the average memory needs is a hint to start it on the right track. A husband had been asked, when leaving the house, to order some groceries before going to the train to meet some friends. He made a picture, of his car standing where it would be when he was ready to leave the office, and over the whole car he spread a large beefsteak, on one end of the steak he saw a bag of sugar, on the other end he saw a bag of coffee, then he broke an egg over the whole, for these were the things which he was to order. When he came from his office, seeing the car, a part of the picture, it reminded him of the groceries, and he easily remembered the things wanted.

This application of the visual memory can become invaluable to the child. In cases where the desired result has not been procured the difficulty, almost invariably, is a lack of vividness in seeing the place, person, or thing which is to act as the reminder. It must be familiar, definite, and clearly visualized. Practice will improve the results. Make an effort to see detailed and distinct objects in your pictures and use the strengthening elements. Here are a few additional examples of how children have used this idea. It works.

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