Oh, my goodness. I haven’t posted since April. Think of how critical we can be of children who “just don’t feel like” doing their work. I have no excuse. I just have to jump back in the saddle. Young kids can’t always do that however. We have to break down their work into manageable parts so they are not overwhelmed. The opening days of school are over, and most kids are adjusting to their new routines. Let’s take another look at how word finding may impact them at school.
Word finding has a tremendous impact on many, many children. Whether or not your students have a diagnosed word finding problem, please be alert for potential retrieval difficulties. When kids don’t respond to auditory messages, how do we know whether the problem is input or output? How do we know that their failure to answer questions correctly is because they have not understood? Perhaps they are not retrieving the words they need.
The quick and easy way to sort out the difference between kids who don’t understand and kids who don’t retrieve promptly and accurately is to provide a recognition task. Offer a choice of 3 responses and ask for the correct one. Or provide a possible answer and ask them if it’s correct. This isn’t foolproof. But it is a start toward providing your students the type of help they need.