Children with word‐finding difficulties‐prevalence, presentation and naming problems

Abstract

There is increasing interest from therapists and researchers in children's word-finding difficulties (WFDs). Word finding difficulties are usually considered to be present when children are able to identify a referent from a set of exemplars, but have difficulty producing the target word when shown a picture or in conversation. Word finding difficulties are associated with a number of conversational forms such as delays in the production of a word, the use of long pauses within phrases, frequent use of place holders ('uh', 'um', etc.) and the use of circumlocutions. Although interest is being shown in WFDs, most of the data come from relatively small samples with the result that one knows little about the prevalence of the condition, what circumstances exacerbate the condition, the occurrence of associated difficulties and the types of therapy that are employed. To obtain this information a survey was carried out in the South-East of England of practitioners working with children who have language difficulties. Twenty-three per cent of children in language support services were identified as having WFDs. Most respondents used a mixture of formal and informal assessments. It was reported that WFDs were associated with difficulties in grammatical production, word meaning and grammatical comprehension. WFDs in addition were more likely to occur in situations with high processing demands. A variety of intervention strategies were identified. These findings are discussed in relation to current practice and the authors understanding of the condition.

Neural dynamics during the vocalization of ‘uh’ or ‘um’

“…A plausible explanation for our ECoG observation is that filler utterances are more likely to occur while large-scale networks across the association cortex remain engaged in cognitive processing prior to motor responses (i.e., verbal articulation). This hypothesis is consistent with the generally accepted notion that filler utterances are a behavioral marker of increased effort to recall, search, or select a relevant word 2 . The involvement of large-scale association networks reflects the complexity of the sentence production task.…”

“…Regardless of age, gender, or native language, healthy individuals use filler phrases, also known as filled pauses, during spontaneous speech 1 . Frequent utterance of fillers is tightly associated with increased effort to recall or search for a relevant word 2 , increased anxiety 3 , and divided attention 4 . Disfluent non-native speakers compared to native ones as well as dysphasic patients compared to non-dysphasic ones more frequently utter fillers during verbal communication 5 , 6 .…”

“…Given that filler phrases are associated with recall effort and word search 2 , we hypothesized that the spontaneous utterance of fillers, compared to that of non-filler words, would be associated with greater high gamma augmentation across large-scale networks of the association cortex. This hypothesis was further motivated by previous imaging studies of healthy children and adults, which reported that these regions were activated, to the largest extent, during tasks requiring the selection of optimal words among competing alternatives 20 – 25 .…”

Lexical–Semantic Organization in Children With Specific Language Impairment

“…WFDs refer to the inability to find the appropriate word and the use of alternative behaviors (e.g., reformulations; repetitions; use of fillers such as ah or uhm or empty words such as stuff or thing ; long pauses; and substitutions) to compensate for these difficulties (Messer & Dockrell, 2006). A survey study conducted in the United Kingdom suggests that 23% of the general population of language-impaired children also have WFDs (Dockrell, Messer, George, & Wilson, 1998). Clinically, WFDs are often diagnosed when a significant discrepancy is detected in a child’s scores on a pair of conormed vocabulary tests that respectively measure word comprehension and production (German, 2000; Gray et al, 1999; Messer & Dockrell, 2006).…”

Core vocabulary in the narratives of bilingual children with and without language impairment

“…About 25% of children with PLI also demonstrate word-finding difficulties even on words that they are able to recognise and comprehend (e.g. Dockrell, Messer, George, & Wilson, 1998). Word finding deficits manifest across language tasks including discourse (German & Simon, 1991), story retell (McGregor, 1997) and picture naming (Dockrell, Messer, George, & Ralli, 2003).…”