Unlike our long-term memory, which can hold unlimited amounts of information, our working memory can only hold so much before it becomes overloaded. This explains why we sometimes forget to pick up milk at the grocery store or fail to remember to stop at the dry-cleaner on the way home from work. Such bouts of forgetfulness are normal and something many people experience at some point, and typically isn’t something to be worried about.

With that said, kids with certain learning disabilities like executive function disorder or ADHD have a much smaller working memory, making it more difficult for them to remember and process information simultaneously. These children may have difficulty with: