We tend to put memory in the "school" box, as if it were just the tool used to memorize a history or geography lesson. In reality, working memory—the kind we strengthen with a simple matching game—is involved in almost everything a child does in a day: following a three-step instruction, remembering what they wanted to say while someone else is speaking, solving a quick mental math problem, or simply not losing their shoes for the third time.
Researchers group these capabilities under the term "executive functions":
a set of processes that allow us to regulate our thoughts and actions to achieve a goal, including inhibition, mental flexibility, and information management within working memory. This isn't just one school skill among others; it's essentially the operating system upon which everything else runs.
Play: the most natural channel for strengthening it
Good news: you don't need austere workbooks. According to cognitive stimulation professionals, play almost systematically engages short-term and working memory, in addition to attention and concentration. And the more we vary the types of games, the more we stimulate different areas.
The memory game, in particular, engages episodic memory quite specifically: associating an image with a location, remembering it, and finding it again.
In other words, a child flipping over cards to find pairs isn't just having fun (even though that is the idea): they are doing exactly the type of cognitive effort that speech therapists and neuropsychologists use in rehabilitation.
Bilingualism: invisible cognitive training
Among the activities that most effectively stimulate a child's working memory, learning a foreign language occupies a unique place. Juggling between two languages forces the brain to continuously select, filter, and memorize. It is an exercise that calls upon the exact same executive functions mentioned above: inhibition, mental flexibility, and information management.
What makes it a particularly powerful tool is its natural nature: for a young child, bilingualism is not an extra effort; it is cognitive stimulation integrated into daily life, as naturally as playing. Memory is strengthened without the child feeling like they are "working."
Capital built early
What we often forget is that memory is not a fixed talent; it is a capacity that is shaped by practice. Cognitive stimulation activities for children are specifically aimed at improving basic learning processes, particularly in children who have weaknesses in short-term memory or attention. The earlier and more regularly this practice is established, the more it becomes a reflex. Much like how you don't "build muscle" in a child in one afternoon, but rather through accumulating small sessions that become a habit.
And this habit is not limited to childhood. Exercising your memory throughout life helps reduce the risk of cognitive decline and preserve autonomy in later years. The same mechanisms we train at age 5 with a card game are the ones we seek to preserve at age 75.
Sources: Miyake, Friedman, Emerson, Howerter & Wager (2000) on the definition of executive functions; France Alzheimer, "10 games to stimulate memory"; NeuronUP, "5 cognitive stimulation activities for children."
Supporting your child's bilingualism every day
If you are looking for concrete tools to nurture your child's languages at home, we have created several resources designed for bilingual families:
- MEMORA : our bilingual matching game, available in French-English, French-Turkish, and French-Spanish. For ages 3 and up.
- The bilingual "7 Families" card game : the classic revisited in French-English, French-Turkish, and French-Spanish to play as a family while naturally strengthening vocabulary.
- The guide to family bilingualism : a 50-page practical guide to understanding how bilingualism works in children and how best to support it daily.
- Our bilingual crossword puzzles! Two languages in every grid, 35 grids, over 700 words, and difficulty that increases progressively throughout the pages (16+ years old)
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