What's your earliest childhood memory? Can you remember the first time you heard thunder or watched a television program? Adults seldom recall events much earlier than the year or so before entering school, just as children younger than three or four rarely keep any memory of specific, personal experiences.     A variety of explanations have been put forward by psychologists for this "childhood amnesia"  . One argues that the  _ , the region of the brain which is responsible for forming memories, does not mature  until about the age of two. But the most popular theory thinks that, since adults do not think like children, they cannot access childhood memories. Adults think in words, and their life memories are like stories. 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 fit the pattern. It's like  _ .    Now psychologist Annette Simms offers a new explanation for "childhood amnesia". She argues that there simply aren't any early childhood memories to recall. 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 forgotten impressions of these experiences into long-term memories. In other words, children hear others talk about their experiences--Mother talking about the afternoon spent looking for crabs   at the beach or Dad asking them about their day at Ocean Park. Without the help of this kind of verbal description, says Dr. Simms, children cannot form long-term memories of their personal experiences. According to Annette Simms,   _  .
verbal support is necessary for children to have long-term memories there does not exist such things as childhood memories children's brains are mature enough to form permanent memories children are generally inexperienced and unable to remember things they don't understand