As What's your earliest childhood memory? Adults seldom 1events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, just as children younger than three or four 2retain any specific, personal experiences. Adults think in words, and their life memories are like stories or 3— one event follows another—as in a novel or film. But when they search through their mental files for early childhood memories to add to this verbal life story, they don't find any that fits the 4. It's like trying to find a Chinese word in an English dictionary. Now psychologist Annette Simms of the New York State University offers a new 5for childhood amnesia. According to Dr. Simms, children need to learn to use someone else' s spoken description of their personal experiences in order to turn their own short-term, quickly 6impressions of them into long-term memories. In other 7, children have to talk about their experiences and hear others talk about theirs—Mother talking about the afternoon 8looking for seashells at the beach or Dad asking them about their day at Ocean park. Without this 9reinforcement, says Dr. Simms, children cannot form 10memories of their personal experiences. A)words B)narratives C)spent D)pattern E)forgotten F)largely G)recall H)explanation I)cases J)rarely K)taken L)factor M)habitual N)permanent O)verbal