ADHD glossary · Family perspectives
Working memory: information you are using right now
Harvard's activities guide describes working memory as keeping information mentally available while using it. [1]
General education and practical perspectives. Editorial standards.
A carefully bounded meaning
Our reader question is about the information needed during the current task. The prospective-memory guide concerns remembering an intended action later. Neither page is a memory test. An unfinished task or a request to repeat instructions does not supply an explanation of a particular person's memory.
An RDY example: which instruction is current?
This scene is invented to illustrate a note, not to demonstrate a memory finding.
Two siblings are preparing invitations for a family game afternoon. One instruction says to write Saturday; a later message changes the event to Sunday. One sibling asks, “Which date are we using?” The other points to the latest message. They agree to put “Sunday, 2 PM” on a small reference card beside the blank invitations and to ask an adult to confirm the address before adding it.
The card separates confirmed information from a question. It is not evidence that either sibling forgot something or has a difficulty. If they would prefer to read the original message each time, they can do that instead.
Copy a current-information card
What I am making or doing:
Information I need while doing it:
Where the current instructions came from:
What is confirmed:
What still needs an answer:
Who can confirm that answer:
My preferred reference: original message / my note / something else
Completed example: “Invitations; date and address; latest family message; Sunday at 2 PM; address still unconfirmed; ask the host.” It contains no measure of a person's capacity. Do not make someone perform the task without their preferred reference to see how they cope.
Whose view belongs here?
- Child: choose whether words, a drawing, or hearing the instruction again suits the task you are doing.
- Teen: say whether the problem is a missing instruction, an unclear instruction, or something you do not want to discuss.
- Parent or grandparent: check whether you changed the information before deciding the person failed to retain it.
An adult example could use a recipe-card label or event address, but the household scenes here are not findings about adults drawn from a child-development guide.
Related guides
Questions you may have
Is a written card a treatment or memory-training exercise?
No. It is an optional place for selected information. We make no claim that it changes working memory.
Does “I don't remember” identify the cause?
Not on this page. Ask what information is needed now; do not use this example to assess a person.
Can the note stay private?
Yes. The person can keep their own reference without giving others a record of every question they asked.
Evidence and limitations
[1] Harvard activities guide, published May 6, 2014. The original publisher PDF, introduction, printed page 1 supports [1]. Publisher HTML and the PDF definition were inspected September 5, 2026. Scope: infancy through adolescence; no RDY activity or product was evaluated. The wording above is a short attributed paraphrase, not a reproduced worksheet.
Sources and what they support
These sources support the specific statements identified below. Our practical exercises are suggestions to consider, not evidence of a treatment effect.
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Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence — Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
Source type: institutional.
Published . Accessed .
Source check, September 5, 2026: Scoped source check. Passage: Introduction, printed page 1 (PDF page 2), working-memory bullet. Limits: Infancy-to-adolescence guide. Definition only; no RDY exercise or adult effectiveness inference. Date checked on linked publisher landing page, not inferred from upload-path year.
Supports: Harvard's activities guide describes working memory as keeping information mentally available while using it.
Correction check: No correction/retraction notice found in the publisher title and material inspected; focused correction-marker check found none. Not exhaustive bibliographic clearance.
Updates and corrections
Published .
Found a factual error or something unclear? Use the contact route on our Trust page. Read our research method for the evidence approach.