I am concerned about my daughter’s word retrieval problems. She just turned six, has normal intelligence and has been developing normally up to this point. However, she often forgets what common objects are called. She forgets simple things she knows, like shirt, potato, blocks, etc… I will tell her the object’s name and sometimes she keeps asking me what it’s called. It’s as if she doesn’t recognize the name and the object are related. Other times I will ask her to describe the object and she can’t do it. We have some interesting and frustrating conversations as a result.
It seems to be a memory problem, but ironically, my daughter is really good at memory games involving cards or hidden objects. LD kids are always an enigma; my son has to put forth a lot of effort to write, but he draws beautifully and effortlessly.
Language problems seem to run in my husband’s family. My husband is dyslexic and has some problems with dysnomia. My older son is also dyslexic, but has no expressive language issues.
What can be done for a child like this? My daughter will see a speech-language pathologist next month. Any suggestions?
Jenn
Re: Word Retrieval Problems
My dd had severe expressive language issues compounded by word retrieval/dysnomia. My husband also has the same issues with the dysnomia.
A fire truck was a water truck, a drive-thru was a run-thru, contacts were eye-tacs etc. She has a terrible time remembering names. She would tell me about her new best friend and I’ll ask her name, she doesn’t know.
It has gotten better as she gets older. Your comment about not being able to describe the object has me wondering if your dd may be a conceptualizer vs. a visualizer? My dd is a conceptualizer. She had a hard time describing objects too. Although she is VERY visual and a visual learner, she really can’t visualize on her own w/o a visual que. She thinks and sees more in ‘feelings’. When she looks at a letter or an object, she really doesn’t see that picture in her head. We have worked on the whole ‘imaging’ thing and it has started to open new doors for her. She can now image in her head, but I think she has to think about it first - it doesn’t come naturally.
We discovered just recently that when she meets a new person, she is completely focused on ‘how does this person make me feel? Do I like them, do they like me, are they funny, nice, mean etc. etc.’ She doesn’t remember anything about what they look like or what they were wearing. So putting the ‘name to a face’ just doesn’t work for her. Once we discovered this, she now tries to pay more attention to what they look like and it has made a difference in remembering their name.
Re: Word Retrieval Problems
When Michelle was little she’d try to ask for something and we had no idea what she wanted so we started asking “what color?” after she learned her colors that helped so much. Now I think she has taken on the describing thing as a strategy. She describes things to a T, only I often don’t know what she is talking about because her speech can be difficult or there are too many unknown variables or she might be describing some detail that I didn’t notice. Once we figure out what she wants we realize what a good job she did at describing it. It often feels like we’re playing charades and she’s winning.
We have been watching the tv contest for the Broadway show of Grease and she wanted to watch it on Sunday night (forgetting that it was over) and we didn’t know what she meant so she started singing “You’re the one that I want” to describe it because she couldn’t remember the name Grease.
For her I think word retrieval is difficult because she doesn’t have the vocabulary in the first place.
Kathryn
Re: Word Retrieval Problems
My son is 8….He was just diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing Deficit. He has word retrieval problems. He frequently forgets the names of everyday items -ie:whats the name of what we eat for breakfast-referring to cereal. He was tested through school for a learning disability, but was found to have an impairment only in speech/language and will start speech therapy in school for 30 min. once/week. He has difficulty in school - reading/spelling. I am unsure if the word retrieval is secondary to CAPD??
I am sure the speech therapy evaluation will clarify your concerns.
Good Luck.
Re: Word Retrieval Problems
Since dyslexia runs in your family I would strongly urge you to read the following book:
Sally Shaywitz — Overcoming Dyslexia
James Nuttall — Michigan
Hi,
My daughter is 8 and has a serious language problem, both expressive and receptive. She has a hard time with word retrieval as well, but can beat me at memory games like finding the 2 matching cards. She is also great at sight words. I have started using her visual strength to our advantage. Last week we worked on learning her doubles in addition 1+1, etc… so we made flash cards and colored them, drawing different designs on each one. I figured that she might make a mental note visually, like take a picture of it in her head. So far so good. She had no problem learning her doubles. Now it is getting confusing with other math facts, but I am trying to stick with using her visual memory. When I flash the doubles flash cards (not the ones we colored) at her she blurts out the answer so fast, but when I ask her orally “3+3” she can’t recall and just starts guessing things like “16? 17??”.
Hope you can get some answers, but do try to use her strengths to her advantage.
Kathryn