Think back to when you were young. What is the earliest memory that you can remember, and what age were you? Its pretty difficult isn’t it. Chances are, the earliest memories you remember is around 3-4 years old. The earliest age of conscious memory for most infants / children is just about the age of 3 1/2 (Bauer 2002). Now if you actually remembered a memory from that young age without just remembering the memory by it being told to you by someone else; most likely that memory was a traumatic event that happened to you. We tend to remember traumatic events very vividly, more so than any other.
Sigmund Freud, a famous neuroscientist, believed that because infantile memories are weak, there is an increase in a certain memory if the situation was traumatic. These memories are sometimes considered “flashbulb memories,” which are said to be nearly photographic. Traumatic events are a direct threat to a person’s well being, that is why we can remember them so clearly. When confronted with trauma, a child may not have the ability to deal with the experience. While very young children may not remember specific events at a certain age, they do remember emotions, images and can be reminded of situations that cause them to be upset.
When I was young, I had many vivid memories that I could remember at a later age but now if I try to think back to some without looking at pictures or hearing stories to refresh my memory, most of them have faded away. About a few weeks ago I was asked the same question I stated above; “What is the earliest memory that you can remember, and what age were you?” I thought long and hard, and turns out, the earliest memory I could possibly remember was a traumatic event for me. When I was about 2-3 years old I distinctly remember that I had knocked my two front teeth out with my height chair at the dinner table. I remember it was at my old house on Ferry Road, it was dinner time and I had a cheese stick in my hand and my mom told me to be careful with the chair because I was hanging on it and it was dangerously close to my face. Little did I know my mom was right, I pulled the chair straight down onto my face, knocking my two front teeth out sending me right into my very first emergency room visit.
That is an interesting story! When first asked what my first memory was, I thought it would be around age two, however I really could not remember anything until I was between three and four years old. Most of my memories from my childhood come from the memory of it being told to me by my parents, however I have on vivid memory from about three years old. One of the reasons that I have a clear memory from the young age of three, is because, like yours, mine was very traumatic. When I was three, my sister was only six months old. My mom was sitting on my bed with me and my sister at bedtime, and I started jumping on the bed. As my mom was telling me to stop jumping, my little sister flew off of the bed and got a concussion. This was extremely traumatic for me and my family and I think that this is the reason that I vividly remember it, rather than simply remembering what I have been told happened over the years.
Hi,
I was really intrigued by your blog post and could relate to it in so many ways. It is extremely hard to think back and recall my earliest memory, however the only one that seemed to cross my mind was a childhood traumatic event. When my brother and I were younger, my dad used to take us snowboarding at a ski resort in the Poconos. After a few sessions, my brother and I got the hang of it and felt prepared to take move up in level of difficulty within the trails. As we were going down, I heard a scream and i noticed that my brother had fallen backwards and severely injured himself. He was looked at by paramedics and they declared that his wrist had been broken. To this day, I have not been snowboarding since because I am extremely worried about having to experience a dangerous fall like my brother did. It has caused me to associate winter sports with traumatic events. It is crazy how we only seem to vividly recall traumatic experiences rather than a basic childhood memory.