Children and adults challenged with word finding have difficulty retrieving words in the presence of a good understanding of the words that they are unable to find. They appear not to know answers when in reality they know, but are unable to express their knowledge. We have all been there, trying to find someone’s name or a word, and experiencing the associated frustration. Hopefully the situation is transient, but when it becomes chronic, it should be addressed.
People with word finding impairment have difficulty retrieving specific words such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, dates, numbers, etc. In the classroom students can have difficulty responding to questions that require retrieval of specific facts. Even though they know the information, they may have difficulty relating character names, locations, dates, or other specific facts from a story. Word finding difficulties can be present while we are relating experiences and events. This results in discourse that may be brief and/or contain a high incidence of word finding behaviors such as word repetitions, word reformulations (revisions), substitutions, insertions, empty words, time fillers and delays.
Note: This information and more is available on the website for the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association: www.asha.org.