Word Retrieval Problems

"Gosh....it's on the tip of my tongue....."

The term "word retrieval" refers to the processes involved in mentally identifying and then producing the word or words necessary to express a thought or name an object.

Word retrieval difficulties sometimes occur in isolation, but they are often accompanied by problems in other areas of language function. Students with a wide variety of learning issues frequently are found to have word retrieval problems. These include students with learning and/or language disabilities, reading disability, ADHD, fluency disorders, or brain injuries. Word retrieval problems are particularly associated with the "language zones" of the left hemisphere of the brain and parts of the frontal lobes.

Parents are often confused about what to do to help a child that has word retrieval difficulties. It's important to realize that this is not a vocabulary issue that will be fixed by exposing your child to new vocabulary words. Rather, it is that the student knows and understands the word or words, and has correctly used the words before. Their brain is just slow to pull up those words. Like many other brain functions, regular practice can improve the brain's ability to retrieve words quickly and accurately.

Some activities you can do with your child to help with word retrieval include:

Read riddle books or other books that play with words.

Play word classification games.

Play synonym and antonym games.

Tell how things are the same and different.

A psychologist or speech-language pathologist can help to identify or remediate word retrieval problems. At Langsford Learning Acceleration Centers, we have found that our work to develop visualizing and verbalizing skills can also prove useful in the development of language skills in general.