It is a proven fact that memory plays a great role in human’s life - may it be remembering names of people, remembering dates of important incidents, may be remembering every day assignments. Memory is a great asset to children in retaining of the facts they learn in schools and reproduce them in their examination papers. The more the memory, the greater is the academic achievement.

Now-a-days news papers are full of memory-improving drugs’ advertise-ments. Many children and even their parents are using such drugs. But all these drugs are false and no drug can improve memory. Memory is innate or god-given. Every child is born with a particular pattern of intelligence and such intelligence help to remember. But not withstanding one’s intelligence, someone does not remember his lesson due to lack of practice. So why the children forget, has been discussed underneath just to inform both children and their parents and to give some benefits to them.

Before going into details, it is imperative to say that children devise their own techniques to remember due to individual differences. So, some common causes for forgetting are given.They are :

1. Lack of practice:- There is a saying that “Practice makes a man perfect.” In Sanskrit there is a sloka which means ‘Without practice, learning is like poison’.  When a child learns a subject he forgets 47% after 20 minutes, 66% after one day, 72% after two days, 75% after six days and 80% after a month. So from this scientific study of forgetting by eminent psychologist, we conclude that regular practice is necessary to remember. Hence parents are advised to see that their children make a regular habit of revising their lessons.

2.    Repression:- Repression means to repress the desire to learn a lesson or topic. The topic which appears
difficult to a child, he avoids reading it. An interesting  topic which is taught by a fear-arising teacher is generally avoided  by the child. Pleasure giving topic is more remembered than pain giving topic. Topic is not an injection which gives pain nor a sweet meat which gives pleasure. Pleasure and pain generally come from either, teacher or parents. Rebuke, punishment gives pain, encouragement, reward gives pleasure. So never rebuke, reprimand your child, rather encourage him.

3. Distortion:- It is caused due to lack of understanding the lesson or topic. Either in the classroom or in the house if a child fails to understand the meaning of a topic, poem, formula, his memory becomes lazy and he fails to produce it clearly. So the teacher or the parents should clearly explain the topic.

4.Obstacles:- Obstacles are many. Outward disturbance, high pitch loud-speaker or fireworks, noise etc. are responsible for forgetting. Similarly inner obstacles such as illness, threatening or beating from teachers or parents aid forgetting. Even certain subjects prevent memory. For example after reading history, if mathematics is read, then the later is not remembered. There is inter-correlation among various subjects. Geography, science and mathematics will  correlate, learning  of one helps the other.

5. Readiness:- You can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. Similarly a child must be ready physically, mentally, emotionally for learning otherwise more compulsion will not make him learn and what to speak of remembering. Make your child feel comfortable by encouragement and endearing advice.

6. Motivation:- It is one of the greatest factor for learning and remembering. Lack of motivation inhibits (repress) memory. Many parents use to find fault with their children as a result the child loses interest and ultimately loses preparing his lessons. Encourage him. Do not believe  spare the rod, spoil the child. It is outdated. Now the government has banned any sort of corporal punishment.

6. Rest:- It is vital to learning. Many parents engage their children in variety of tuitions getting no time for rest. Research has shown that good rest after reading a topic helps memory whereas lack of it helps forgetting. Never allow your child to read till late night. Sleep is the best form of rest and also sports or games act as rest.

Factors for forgetting are many. But some important factors are given here. The best way to avoid forgetting is to ensure good study environment in home, to motivate your child  and last but not the least to try to be with your children as long as you are free.