Question
What are some therapeutic techniques to improve oral expression for middle school age level students with difficulties in word finding?
Answer
Before implementing therapeutic techniques for students with word finding issues, it would be necessary to determine whether the word finding difficulties are caused by semantic or phonological deficits or a combination of the two. For students with word-finding difficulties due to semantic issues, an effective approach would consist of elaborated exposure to vocabulary so that the students establish connections among words and word meanings (Paul, 2001). Semantic visual maps and scripts are effective strategies to increase the students' semantic associations and should be based on vocabulary that is targeted in the students' curricular units. (Wallach & Miller as cited in Paul, 2001).
If the word finding issues are caused by phonological issues, then increasing the students' phonological awareness as it relates to new vocabulary may help. Students need to focus on the phonological structure of words so target thematic vocabulary but focus on phonological similarities of the vocabulary terms. One can incorporate writing sentences with cloze activities so that the students have to fill in the correct words that have a particular phonemic structure. The students may be provided with phonological cues so that they can guess certain words. Again all of the vocabulary terms used should be based on curricular themes (Paul, 2001). Fulk and Stormont-Spurgin (as cited in Paul, 2001) recommend combining vocabulary and spelling so that students are reminded of phonological similarities such as words having the same ending, same initial phoneme, and/or same vowel sounds. Paul (2001) recommends that students be encouraged to use a combination of semantic and phonological cues to assist with word retrieval.
Reference: Paul, R. (2001). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence: Assessment & intervention. St. Louis, MO: Mosby, Inc.
Maria Diana Gonzales, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Disorders at Texas State University-San Marcos. She has 20 years clinical experience as a bilingual speech-language pathologist. Her areas of expertise include childhood language disorders, normal language development, and bilingual assessment and intervention issues.
