# Childhood amnesia - will my daughter remember what she remembers now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 23, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263 "2010-06-23T19:01:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JerseyFrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bcef8e/32.png) [@JerseyFrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerseyFrank)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/1 "2010-06-23T19:01:12Z")
My daughter is 44 months old. She vividly recalls experiences without me prompting her. I’ll reinforce her memory by acknowledging and talking about the event. She’ll provide more details that I didn’t bring up and aren’t an obvious stated cause / predicted effect. She can commonly recall events from at least 8 months ago; however has no memory of events that occurred when she was 23 months old. Will she remember these events (that occurred at roughly 36 months old) as she ages? Will they be lost to childhood amnesia? You can generalize for generic children rather than trying to predict for this one child. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/2 "2010-06-23T19:10:01Z")
Some of it. They remember weird stuff though. She may end up with no memory at all of that 2 week trip to the Grand Canyon when she [insert elaborate once in a lifetime Memorex Moment here], but one day she’ll ask you if you remember that squirrel that ran up the tree one time at the park next to your house, or the time when she paid for her own ice cream cone. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/3 "2010-06-23T19:18:35Z")
I basically remember nothing from before I was 5. Snippets of images, brief “clips” of certain events. If you put all the snippets together, it might represent an hour of my life in total. Also at times it is hard to distinguish between what I _actually_ remember and stories that people have told me so many times it feels like I remember those events. Finally, my parents have told me that some of my fairly distinct memories are actually pastiches of several events that didn’t happen at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/4 "2010-06-23T19:22:18Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > I basically remember nothing from before I was 5. Snippets of images, brief “clips” of certain events. If you put all the snippets together, it might represent an hour of my life in total. Also at times it is hard to distinguish between what I _actually_ remember and stories that people have told me so many times it feels like I remember those events. > . Same here. I’m doubtful when people say that they remember vividly what happened to them before the age of 4. ---
**Author:** ![Gruntled](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Gruntled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gruntled)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/5 "2010-06-23T19:47:42Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > Same here. I’m doubtful when people say that they remember vividly what happened to them before the age of 4. And yet, many people here are all in a tizzy, calling this man a selfish asshole for spending the first 23 months of his son’s life at sea, living his dream: > **[man misses first two years of his son's life to finish a sailing trip - was he...](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=567692)** > > US sailor returns after record-breaking 1,152 day trip (bbc.co.uk) BBC News; Page last updated at 04:24 GMT, Friday, 18 June 2010 05:24 UK Reid Stowe, age 58, spent 1152 days aboard his ship. His girlfriend, Soanya Ahmad, now 26, originally was on... Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/6 "2010-06-23T19:48:30Z")
My memories start about age 7. My parents have told me stories of things I did earlier. Those are second hand memories. I only know what they told me. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/7 "2010-06-23T19:54:39Z")
My kids are 11 and 12. Their memories fade with time, just like ours. Sometimes they still pull incredible stuff out of nowhere, but when asked if they remember certain things that they once used to remember, they draw a blank, or have a hard time with details. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/8 "2010-06-23T21:08:05Z")
Different people have different memory abilities. It sounds like your daughter will have a better memory than most. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/9 "2010-06-23T21:23:06Z")
> [@Gruntled](#): > > And yet, many people here are all in a tizzy, calling this man a selfish asshole for spending the first 23 months of his son’s life at sea, living his dream: > > [man misses first two years of his son's life to finish a sailing trip - was he a jerk? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=567692) > > Go figure. So, by this logic, a child that was beaten every day until the age of two would grow up exactly the same as one that was given an ice cream cone instead. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/10 "2010-06-24T00:35:20Z")
it’s strange the things that stick in your memory (or don’t). I asked my mom once about a really clear memory I had of a dark room and being sat leaning up against a blue striped chair right in front of the TV. It was just a single moment of feeling weird leaning up against the chair leg and the brightness of the TV, but to this day I can see the whole memory. My mom remembered it too, it was November 22, 1963 and I was just shy of one year old. But for the life of me I can’t remember a single thing about 2nd grade. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/11 "2010-06-24T01:02:42Z")
Memory can be weird. I did not speak English till I was four. But I clearly remember things happening to me before then as being in English. I remember my babysitter who spoke only Serbo-Croatian, but I remember that as being in English. Somewhat oddly, because my mother and father didn’t allow me to speak Serbo-Croat once I begin English training, I can’t understand it nor speak it now. ---
**Author:** ![Visual\_Purple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@Visual\_Purple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Visual_Purple)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/12 "2010-06-24T01:13:10Z")
I’ve been able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of my reasonably skeptical parents that I have many memories from younger than four and a fair collection from younger than three. However, the memories are nearly all visual–what articles of clothing looked like and things like that. Any narrative is very fragmentary. I’m something of a visual thinker; my guess is that that made my lack of well developed language less important for solidifying the memories. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/13 "2010-06-24T02:02:49Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Memory can be weird. I did not speak English till I was four. But I clearly remember things happening to me before then as being in English. I remember my babysitter who spoke only Serbo-Croatian, but I remember that as being in English. > > Somewhat oddly, because my mother and father didn’t allow me to speak Serbo-Croat once I begin English training, I can’t understand it nor speak it now. Interestingly enough what experienced is pretty well described. Children adopted from other cultures (the biggest literature being of Russian adoptees to America) tend to be serially monolingual. They fairly quickly pick up English to the level that they were speaking their native language in and, at the same time, forget how to speak in the native language. As far as childhood amnesia goes - it is a difficult thing to sort out. Are memories really lost, or is it that the pointer mechanism has a harder time pointing to them as it matures? Without out doubt we relay much more on verbal mechanisms for our autobiographical memory (and our ongoing personal thoughts in general) as we get to school age and above and less on thinking in other perceptual modalities, like pictures and smells even. Using that verbal process to point to memories stored as something that was experienced much less verbally, if at all, seems likely to be less effective the more it becomes the prime accessing modality. Anyway, to the question of the op, is [this study.](http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/10006037/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0) > [@](#): > > Sixteen white, middle-class 8-year-old children were asked about events that they had recalled in previous interviews when they were 40, 46, 58 or 70 months old. Children recalled most of the events about which they were asked, even those events that occurred in very early childhood. Moreover, children recalled the events accurately and with many details. However, children reported much new and different information about the events at age 8. Overall, girls recalled more information at age 8 than boys did. Surprisingly, there were no relationships between rehearsal and the amount of information children recalled at age 8, but it must be emphasized that all these events were frequently rehearsed at the time of occurrence. These results demonstrate remarkable memory over extended periods of time for events occurring in early childhood. Implications for childhood amnesia are discussed. And [this](http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a744096842) > [@](#): > > Here we investigate the earliest memories of children of 6-19 years old. Parents confirmed the memory events and dated the memories. There were surprisingly few developmental differences between the earliest memories of children. Although 6-9-year-olds recalled earlier events than did older children, there were no differences between older age groups. Memories from all age groups were similar in structure, social orientation, and the nature of the recalled event. However, memories of older children were more likely to involve negative affect. There were also few gender differences, although girls were more likely to recall traumatic or transitional events while boys were more likely to recall play events. Overall, results deepen the paradox of early memory: 6-9-year-olds have verbally accessible memories from very early childhood that then seem to disappear as they get older. Again, I am not so sure that they disappear, so much as that our increasingly verbal internal selves have a hard time accessing the pointer that gets to them. (Generally the hippocampus and its associated structures are thought of as serving the role of pointer as well as other memory related functions.) Which fits with **Visual Purple** ’s anecdotal experience. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/14 "2010-06-24T02:29:09Z")
I think it depends; I remember some things VERY clearly from when I was about 2-3 years old. For example, I was born in September 1972, and I distinctly remember that the neighborhood fire hydrants were painted in Bicentennial themes (little minutemen, etc…) preceding the Bicentennial in July 1976. Not that I recall the date, but I do remember my parents and I walking around the neighborhood looking at them, and me being about the same height as the hydrants. As far as a fairly coherent internal narrative goes, that didn’t start until slightly before school started when I was about 5. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/15 "2010-06-24T02:46:48Z")
I have a memory that preceded my first birthday, and the facts in that memory have been verified by two family members. It was an event of no importance, but with a very visual component. On the other hand, I have no memory of the time my aunt took me to the circus, probably around the age of 5. I do remember, though, having circus souvenirs in my room, afterward. Your daughter may always remember things from her early childhood, but not necessarily the things you’d think. ---
**Author:** ![boozilu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@boozilu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boozilu)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/16 "2010-06-24T14:39:43Z")
I don’t think that my kids will remember much. But I figure that every great experience they have stays there somewhere, in the feeling of being loved and cherished. So I try not to get upset if they don’t remember the “once in a lifetime” trip; I just hope that it will make them more open to and appreciative of adventures in the future. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/17 "2010-06-24T14:44:46Z")
> [@Gruntled](#): > > And yet, many people here are all in a tizzy, calling this man a selfish asshole for spending the first 23 months of his son’s life at sea, living his dream: > > [man misses first two years of his son's life to finish a sailing trip - was he a jerk? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=567692) > > Go figure. That’s because he gave up watching his kid grow up; not because the kid wouldn’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/18 "2010-06-24T14:59:33Z")
More on **Markxxx** ’s [language experience](http://cercor.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/13/2/155). And I suspect it really is not a hijack – the idea that one sort of processing takes over the circuitry from another, and results in catastrophic forgetting of the first, may similarly occur as we switch to a more verbal run internal thought process for autobiographical information and for accessing it, from a less verbal experience of the world in the preschool years. It’s very interesting stuff. And agreed with the two last posts that actually are discussing the same thing. Not explicitly remembering that something occurred dies not mean that something did not have significant influence on your life. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/19 "2010-06-24T19:00:52Z")
This something I worry about. My 2 older kids are 7 and 5 and my maternal grandparents died the last 2 years. Whenever there’s an opportunity I try to get them to remember them to hlpefully reinforce their memories. My older daughter has great-grandma’s knitting needles and I hope that they help them retain memories. If they grab a flashlight I try to remind them that great-grandpap always let them play with flashlights when they were little. It’s great that they had the opportunity to know their great-grandparents (my other grandmother is still alive and we visit her in a alzheimer’s home but it’s not the same-there’s little joy and they are more confused by her oddities than anything) but it would be a shame if they forgot. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263/20 "2010-06-24T19:44:52Z")
I remember things going back to just around the time I turned two years old but really nothing beyond that. Does anybody’s memory go back farther? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/childhood-amnesia-will-my-daughter-remember-what-she-remembers-now/544263.md?page=2)