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On the Tip of My Tongue
Word Retrieval: What It Is and How It Can Be
Improved
By: Valerie
Johnston, MS, CCC-SLP
Basic Information:
Word retrieval, or word
finding, is the ability to recall words that are already known and stored in
long-term memory. In order to retrieve a word from long-term
memory several things have to occur almost simultaneously. First, the concept that matches the idea to
be expressed must be selected from storage.
Next, the word for this concept must be retrieved from long-term
memory. And, finally, the word must be
spoken.
There are several factors
that affect the ability to retrieve words and concepts from long-term
memory. How well the words are organized
and stored in memory and the efficiency of the retrieval mechanism both affect
the ability to recall a particular word.
In addition, mental, physical and emotional states influence the ability
to recall words.
Amazingly, word retrieval
occurs very rapidly and efficiently in most speakers. However, many children and adults with
language disorders have difficulty with this aspect of language. Some common behaviors that are signs of word
retrieval difficulties include using vague words (stuff, thing, etc.),
describing or giving the function of the word, and repeating words or phrases
when relating an experience. For a more
complete list of behaviors that are indicative of word finding difficulties go
to Word Finding
Checklist.
Strategies that Help Word Retrieval:
There are many things that
can be done to improve word retrieval skills.
The techniques that are used are divided into two major groups:
·
Strategies that assist organization and storage
·
Strategies that assist retrieval
When a word retrieval
problem occurs in a child, parents are an important part of providing practice
on these strategies. As you work with
your child, remember that the overall goal is to help him retrieve words that
he knows, not to develop vocabulary by teaching new words. Since all children are different, you will
need to adapt the tasks to suit the ability level of your child. A high level of success will encourage
cooperation, motivation and self-confidence.
Strategies that Assist Organization and
Storage:
Organizing words by common
features and expanding the number of features known about each individual word
strengthens the accuracy and rapidity of word recall. The following strategies use these
principles and can be used with your child to improve his word finding
abilities both informally as you go about your daily routines and in structured
activities.
Categorization/Organization
The ability to categorize
assists word recall by organizing words into groups based on shared
characteristics. Many of the activities
that follow require your child to list things that belong in specific
categories. For example, you might ask
your child to name things that fly, bugs, fruits, musical instruments, etc.
As an alternative
activity, you can present a set of pictures and have your child name them. After he names them have him group them into
appropriate categories. Have him explain
why he grouped them the way he did.
Encourage flexibility of thinking by finding multiple ways to classify,
or group, the same set of objects. For
example, if you have a bird, a turtle, a fish, a rowboat, a canoe, an airplane
and a helicopter, they can be grouped in several different ways (things that
fly, things that go in the water, animals, and vehicles). After grouping them one way, encourage your
child to talk about different ways the items could be grouped and explain why
the items go together.
More Activities to Develop Categorization (adapted
from Bowen, 1998):
·
Play
word-classification games – Have your child think of as many items in a
category as he can. Some suggestions for
categories to use follow:
tools toys
games animals
drinks fruits
movies types of cars
sports clothes
flowers colors
vehicles things with
wheels
things made
of wood things that smell
·
Play
"name the category" – “red, blue, green, orange and pink are all
...", "lions, tigers, monkeys and elephants are all ...”
·
Play
"pick the word that does not belong" – “Which one is doesn’t go with
the others: cat, dog, tree, mouse?” Have your child explain the reason for his
choice.
·
Play
"which two words go together?" – “watch, pig, nail, clock". Again, have your child explain the reason for
his choice.
Word Association/Elaboration
This strategy facilitates word recall by helping your child identify important features, or attributes, of words. There are many attributes that can be used to describe words. Some of these include color, size, shape, and parts (visual aspects), where you typically find the object (location), what the object does, or what you can do with it (function), what the object is made of (composition), and things that are associated with the object (associations).
One way to help your child learn how to use this strategy is to give him
practice describing specific items. For
example, for bird, your child might
say, “It has feathers and wings. It flies.
It lives in a nest and eats bugs and worms.”
You can easily turn this into a fun activity by playing a guessing game
in which you describe an object and your child guesses and then your child
describes an object and you guess. You
might need to have pictures available to help your child think of something to
describe. If you use pictures, have
your child turn the picture face down before he begins to describe it. Also, make sure your child gives clues from a
wide variety of features, not just the same ones over and over.
More Activities to Develop Word Association (adapted from Bowen, 1998):
·
Play
sentence completion games – “A house is a place to live. An office is a place
to ...", "A nursery is a place to buy
plants. A Post Office
is a place to buy
..."
·
Play
games involving synonyms – “Can you think of another word that means big?"
"Can you tell me another word for smart?"
·
Play
games that require changing of one part of speech to another:
Today I am riding, yesterday I ... (rode)
Yesterday I rode, tomorrow I will ... (ride)
·
Play
word-association games – “pilot goes with... (plane,
airport, etc.)”, “ship goes with... (sailor, anchor,
etc.)” Accept any reasonable
response.
·
Play
games that involve similarities – “How are a sheep and a cow the
same/alike?" "A train and a
plane are both..."
·
Play
games that involve antonyms:
a.
Sentence
completion activities – “The opposite of hot is ..."
b.
Question-and-answer
format – “What is the opposite of hot?"
c.
Confrontation
naming tasks – use pictures of opposites and have your child name them as
rapidly as he can (hot/cold, wet/dry, big/little, fast/slow, deep/shallow,
apart/together)
d.
Say
a sentence and have your child say the same sentence using the opposite of the
word you used:
Adult: I live in a little house.
Child: I live in a big house.
Adult: I love cauliflower. Child: I hate cauliflower.
Adult: I broke the
ladder. Child: I fixed the ladder.
Adult: My car is old. Child: My car is new.
·
Play
word games that involve differences – “What is different about a bird and a
plane?"
·
Play
"What comes next?" – “Monday Tuesday Wednesday ...”, “Twinkle, twinkle little ...”
·
Play
guessing games – “I’m thinking of something in this room that makes toast. What is it?”
When doing this, use a wide variety of attributes, or features, for your
hints.
·
Play 20 questions
– “I’m thinking of an animal.” Have
your child ask questions such as: “Is it
big? Is it brown? Does it live in the jungle?”
Encourage him to ask questions from a wide variety of attributes (color,
function, location, etc.).
Strategies that Assist Retrieval:
After your child has tried
unsuccessfully to find a word, presenting retrieval cues may help. The following types of cues can be practiced
in structured activities and then used to facilitate recall and retrieval from
long-term memory.
Phonetic (Sound) Cues:
·
Say the beginning
sound (not the letter name) of the
intended word – say “m” to elicit the word "man"
·
Say the beginning
syllables of an intended word that has more than one syllable – say
"hippo" to elicit the word "hippopotamus"
·
Give a rhyming
word cue – say "It rhymes with sing" to facilitate the recall of
"ring"
·
Show the position
of the articulators for the beginning sound of the intended word – purse the
lips for the “sh” sound to elicit the word
"shoe"
Associative-Semantic (Meaning) Class
Cues:
·
Use antonyms to
facilitate retrieval of their direct opposites – say "The opposite of day
is …” to elicit "night"
·
Use synonyms as
cue words – say "Another word for lady is …” to
elicit the word "woman"
·
Use an associated
word which belongs to the same category – say "Bread and …” to elicit the
word "butter"
·
Use the name of a
category – say “It's a building," "It's a fruit," or "It's
an insect" to elicit the target word
·
State a function
of the word – say "You eat it for dinner" or “You can use it to fix
things" to elicit the target word
·
Use serial cueing
– recite part of a well-established series such as "Tuesday, Wednesday
…" to elicit "Thursday”
Sentence Completion:
·
Use sentence completion with a
well-known and
established sentence pattern – say "We decorated the …" to elicit
target words such as "cake" or "tree"
·
Use a nursery
rhyme completion – say “Jack and Jill went up the …" to elicit the word
"hill"
·
Present a
metaphor or a simile – say "as white as …" to elicit the word
"snow”
·
Use proverb
cueing – say "All that glitters is not …" to elicit "gold"
Melodic-Stress Cueing:
·
Sing or hum a
well-known tune to elicit a specific word, number, or letter. For example, hum the alphabet song through
the letter “f” to elicit “g”.
·
Tap the syllabic
stress pattern of a polysyllabic word.
For example, tap __ __ ______ __ __ to elicit the word
"hippopotamus".
Multiple-Choice Cueing:
·
Provide multiple
choices for cueing – say "Is it a house, a tree, or a chair?" to
elicit the word "tree". Have
the word your child is trying to retrieve in the middle of these choices.
Ways to Help your Child Retrieve Words in his Everyday Life:
There
are many ways to help your child retrieve words in his everyday life. Above all, give your child time to think, but
not so long that he is struggling to find the word. Rather than letting him
persist unsuccessfully, give him cues to assist retrieval or tell him the
answer. Go on with your conversation or
activity, but try to come back to the difficult word again.
When providing cues for your child, use a
minimum of visual cues at first. If the word to be retrieved does not come
easily, provide an auditory cue (say the first sound or syllable of the word)
or a verbal clue ("it rhymes with..."). If auditory cues are not working provide
more scaffolding with written sounds or words, and pictures.
More
Ways to Help Your Child Retrieve Words in Daily Routines (adapted from Bowen,
1998):
·
Use a slower rate
of speaking. This encourages your child
to speak more slowly, which makes it easier for him to retrieve words.
·
Avoid
interrupting and filling in the word.
This could contribute to increased frustration.
·
Help to reduce
your child's frustration with communication attempts by:
a.
Asking
association producing questions – “Is it something you eat?" "Is it
yellow?" "Do you eat it for breakfast?"
b.
Giving choices
with the sought after word embedded in the middle – "Do you want chicken,
an egg or a hot dog?"
c.
Accepting
strategies your child is already using.
For example, giving functional descriptions for words which are not
readily retrieved. If your child says,
"It's something you write with", you could say, “Yes, you're right.
You write with a pencil." This
response accepts his use of the strategy and also provides the target word.
·
Talk a lot about
words and their attributes (size, shape, function, place, taste, category,
etc.)
·
Talk
about words and word-meanings. As
natural opportunities arise talk about such topics as "Why is Big Bird
called Big Bird?" Talk about people being named after other people. Talk
about why certain names might have been chosen for pets and TV characters
(Cookie Monster, Rugrats, Inspector Gadget, Uncle
Scrooge, The Fat Controller, etc). Try to work these conversations in around topics
of genuine interest to the child.
·
Read,
read, read, and read! Here are some
suggestions:
Books by Dr Seuss
Books that rhyme, including silly rhymes
Books about opposites
Books about word
classification (vehicles, tools, occupations, etc.)
Books about animals and their young – talk
about the names for animals' offspring (horses have foals, cows have calves,
etc.), and the
correct names for some common animals according to gender
(horse: mare, stallion, filly, colt)
Books about names
Books that contain high repetition of the
same word
Books that tell a story
Books that have riddles and jokes
·
Incorporate
sentence completion tasks into story reading.
When you read with your child, leave out words for him to fill in. These words should be obvious from the
context of what you are reading.
·
Talk with your
child about his difficulty in a low key accepting way. "It's okay if you can’t think of
it. Sometimes I can't remember
names."
·
Play games which
exercise word storage and retrieval skills (see previous sections for some
suggestions).
·
Build your
child's vocabulary. The more
alternatives he has the less frustrated he will be when he cannot retrieve a
specific word.
Conclusion:
Word retrieval abilities can be improved with use of the above strategies. Some of the strategies will be more successful than others for your child. Each child is different, so watch carefully as you work with him and observe which strategies seem to help him the most. Then focus your attention on developing these strategies.
If you are in a situation with your child and he is having difficulty retrieving a word, try using some of the strategies that work for him as cues before supplying the word. This will help him learn how to use the strategies to cue himself, which is the end goal. If your child does not automatically begin to cue himself with the strategies, encourage him to use them by asking, “What can you do to get to the word you want to say? What strategies/cues can you use?”
Teach your child to be his own advocate. He needs to let his listeners know that he knows the word, but just can’t retrieve it at the moment. This means that instead of saying “I don’t know”, he should something like, “I know what it is, I just can’t remember the word for it.” He might even go on to tell some of the things he knows about the word. Doing this also helps your child continue to the search for the word. Once a person says “I don’t know” the use of all strategies stops. This is okay sometimes, but in order to develop improved word retrieval, the strategies that are effective for your child need to be practiced many times.
Final Thoughts:
A child’s word retrieval difficulties can be very frustrating for parents, too. Try to hide your frustration from your child as much as possible. Talk with him in a matter-of-fact way about his difficulty with word retrieval and help him learn how to deal with it effectively. Parents set the stage for how children feel about themselves and their problems. If you are low-key and accepting of the problem, they usually will be, too.
For more information on word retrieval difficulties visit these websites:
www.speech-language-therapy.com/wordretrieval.html
References:
Bowen, C. (1998). Stuck for words? Word retrieval activities for children. Retrieved from http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/wordretrieval.html on 9-24-10.
Hill, D. (1995). Seminar on Word Retrieval Disorders. Northwestern University.
Krassowski, E. (2001). Word Joggers: Exercises for Semantics and Word Retrieval. Thinking Publications.
Williamson, G. and Shields, S. (1999). Rocky’s Mountain: A Word-Finding Game. LinguiSystems.
If
you have questions or need more information you can contact us at:
Overton
Speech & Language Center, Inc.
4763 Barwick Drive, Suite 103
Fort Worth, TX 76132
(817) 294-8408