At what age do children and babies typically begin to form memories?

Memory Formation in Infants and Young Children

Children begin forming memories from birth, but the type and durability of these memories changes dramatically with age—infants as young as 6 months can remember complex events for 2 weeks, 13-month-olds recall specific events after long delays, but children typically cannot retain episodic memories (the kind we consciously recall as adults) until around age 3-4 years. 1, 2, 3

Early Memory Capabilities (Birth to 12 Months)

Immediate Memory Formation

• Infants as young as 6 months demonstrate memory for complex dynamic events (cartoons with storylines) across 2-week delays, as measured by visual paired-comparison tasks 2
• 10- and 12-month-olds similarly remember complex dynamic events over 2 weeks, though they fail to remember scrambled versions without coherent storylines 2
• During the sensorimotor period (birth to 2 years), infants learn through sensory experiences and motor actions, developing object permanence—the awareness that people and things exist even when out of sight 4

Important Caveat

The memories formed in the first year are primarily implicit or procedural memories rather than the explicit episodic memories adults experience. These early memories guide behavior but are not consciously accessible later in life 4.

Toddler Memory Development (13-24 Months)

Event-Specific Memory Emerges

• 13-month-olds can recall specific events after long periods of time using elicited imitation tasks, demonstrating genuine event memory both nonverbally and verbally 1
• Memory at this age is determined primarily by: 1
  • What the child is asked to remember (content matters more than age)
  • Number of exposures to the event
  • Availability of cues or reminders
• 2-year-olds demonstrate memory through deferred imitation tasks, though their memory performance is influenced by daily media exposure (picture book reading <30 minutes daily and video content >1 hour daily both predict lower memory scores) 5

Cognitive Limitations

During the preoperational stage (2-7 years), children exhibit: 4

• Egocentric and concrete thinking
• Limited attention spans (approximately 15 minutes for information processing)
• Learning primarily through hands-on, experiential play
• Inability to conceptualize internal body parts or think logically

Critical Transition Period (Ages 3-4 Years)

The Emergence of Durable Episodic Memory

This is the pivotal age range where childhood amnesia begins to end:

• 3-year-olds form episodic memories but fail to retain them following delays 3
• 4-year-olds retain episodic memories over 24 hours and even 1 week, marking a fundamental shift in memory consolidation 3
• The traditional assumption that earliest memories date back to ages 3-4 years is supported by this developmental milestone 6
• Some significant events (sibling birth, planned hospitalization) may be recalled if they occurred at age 2, though these may represent fragments rather than complete episodic memories 6

The Retention Problem

The limiting factor for early childhood memory is not the ability to form memories, but the ability to retain them over time. 3 This explains why adults typically cannot recall events from before age 3-4 years, despite evidence that younger children do form memories in the moment.

Clinical Implications for Memory Assessment

Age-Appropriate Evaluation Tools

• Birth to 42 months: Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development measure developmental quotient (DQ) through play tasks 4
• 0-68 months: Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) assess cognitive and motor development 4
• Infant habituation performance (looking behavior) predicts cognitive abilities from infancy through adulthood, explaining up to 40% of variance in cognitive performance 4

Factors Affecting Memory Development

Memory development can be compromised by: 4, 7

• Prematurity and low birth weight
• Central nervous system injury (intraventricular hemorrhage, periventricular leukomalacia)
• Infection, poor growth, brain injury
• Maternal factors (substance abuse, pregnancy complications)

Premature infants typically catch up to term peers in major developmental milestones by 24-36 months corrected age, though subtle deficits in visual-motor integration and cognitive function may persist into school age 4, 7.

Practical Summary by Age

• 0-6 months: Sensory and motor-based learning; memories form but are not consciously accessible 4
• 6-12 months: Can remember complex events for weeks; developing object permanence 2, 4
• 13-24 months: Recall specific events after long delays; memory quality depends on repetition and cues 1
• 2-3 years: Form episodic memories but cannot retain them long-term 3
• 4+ years: Retain episodic memories over extended periods; end of childhood amnesia begins 3