I mentioned last week that phonological mnemonics are powerful aids for word finding. Pairing “easy words” with “hard words” has been shown to promote word retrieval [source: German, D. J., Schwanke, J. K., & Ravid, R. (2012). Word Finding: Differentiated vocabulary instruction in the speech and language room. Communications Disorders Quarterly, 33(3), 146-156]. You can refer to the drop down vocabulary menu from the blue bar at the top of this page for a list of cues I have used or others have suggested to me.
When you can anticipate the vocabulary a child needs, the mnemonics are my strategy of choice. But what about those times a child gets stuck on a word he hasn’t practiced?
A child needs a variety of strategies to help himself come up with target words. It’s important to match the strategy to his/her individual needs. I try to watch for those times a child encounters a word finding problem during a therapy session. As soon as possible, I ask him to tell me how he came up with the target word. “How did you get there?” Did he visualize the context of the word he needed? For example, if he was trying to come up with the word “touchdown” did he visualize a football game? If she was trying to come up with the word “pommel horse” did she visualize her gymnastics studio? Did he remember the initial sound in the word? Did she remember the category to which the word belonged?
In my next few posts, I’ll talk about the different strategies I have found successful. I have used 2 acronyms for these strategies: The first is FAVOR-C (“Do yourself a favor and see these word finding strategies in your mind”).
F Fill in the blank
A Associations
V Visualize
O Opposites and synonyms
R Reflective pause
C Categories
The second is “Silly Sally Always Draws Fuzzy Pandas.” Thanks to my colleagues Sarah Mendoza and Tara Brooks Baron for coming up with this cute acronym:
You will notice the strategies aren’t the same on both lists. You may want to make modifications of your own. Think about what strategies the child finds most helpful. Obviously older kids may be more comfortable with FAVOR-C; younger ones may like “Silly Sally.” I’ll give some examples of activities I have used with each of these strategies in future posts.