When it comes to the NLP4Kids syllabus, we save something special for the end.

In fact, I sometimes worry that teaching memory skills last means it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves. Because while it might look like a fun activity to impress parents at the end of a workshop, this technique is far more than that. It’s transformational.

It Looks Like a Trick – But It’s a Breakthrough

The memory skills strategy I teach isn’t one I created myself. Unlike some of the NLP techniques I’ve adapted or built from scratch, this one is modelled from the world’s most successful memory champions.

It’s designed to be delivered in a child-friendly, engaging way – and when we teach it in NLP4Kids training, it always creates that wide-eyed moment of shock and delight in the children who use it.

One of my favourites is called the Linking Technique. I get a group to generate a list of 20-30 completely random objects, ideas, or concepts. Then, within about 15 minutes, I teach them how to recall the entire list – in order – forwards and backwards.

Yes, backwards.

And it works. Every time.

👉 The Linking Technique makes every item unforgettable – because we turn each one into its own “dog on the playground.”

(If you read my recent email, you’ll remember the theory: nobody remembers a regular day at school, but everyone remembers the day a dog got onto the playground. The unusual sticks. The ordinary slips away.)

He Believed His Brain Was Broken – Until This

Let me tell you about a boy I once worked with.

He was seriously underperforming in school. These days, he might have been referred for assessments around neurodiversity, but back then, those conversations weren’t happening the way they are now.

So instead, the labels came in thick and fast: lazy, unmotivated, disengaged. And after hearing it over and over again from teachers and parents alike, he started believing it.

He came into our first session and told me, in no uncertain terms, that the problem was his brain. It didn’t work like other people’s. He couldn’t focus. Couldn’t remember. Couldn’t learn.

The worst part? He believed he couldn’t change.

He thought the information just wasn’t going in at all. Not anxiety, not pressure – just a hopeless, broken sponge that couldn’t absorb anything important.

So I knew where I had to start: his beliefs.

I needed to show him – in real time – that change was not only possible, it was easy.

His Whole World Lit Up in 15 Minutes

In that very first session, we created a list of 25 random words. Then we made it weird. Wild. Unforgettable.

Using the Linking Technique, we made each word memorable by turning it into a story so bizarre, so image-rich and animated, that his brain couldn’t help but remember it.

At first, he rolled his eyes. No faith in it at all. But by the end? His whole posture had shifted. His energy had lifted. His eyes were wide and shining.

And when I asked him to try reciting the list in reverse – and he did it – he looked stunned.
Not just proud. Stunned.

That single moment discredited years of disempowering beliefs.
In just one session, he challenged his old narrative.
And what’s more – he won.

That’s the power of this technique.
It doesn’t just help kids remember more.
It helps them remember who they really are.

by Gemma Bailey (with the help of Ai)

Becoming a Licensee