Designing clinical interventions for children with specific memory disorders.

Despite increasing research into the severe effects of childhood memory disorders, there is currently a paucity of evidence available to inform the design of appropriate rehabilitation strategies. Indeed, within the paediatric literature there is no model that links specific memory disorders with hypotheses for appropriate rehabilitation strategies. This paper introduces a series of intervention hypotheses based on an examination of the strengths and weaknesses associated with each type of childhood memory disorder, including short-term phonological, visuo-spatial, central executive and long-term semantic and episodic memory. Guidance is provided for integrating the hypotheses within practical rehabilitation strategies and case studies are described to examine a number of the hypotheses.