How can dd (nearly 4) have such a good memory but not be able to remember words

[osospecial]

There are probably lots of you with DC with speech & language difficulties who just cannot seem to remember words however often you seem to have said them to them.
It's just one of those days where I'm amazed at how good DDs memory is when playing a game on the iPad for example but cannot find the word to ask for 'cake' (which she has heard and said so many times)
What makes words so hard to remember?

DS has always had an amazing visual memory, but words came hard to him. He still sometimes struggles with remembering an occasional complex or unfamiliar noun, and has had no luck at learning foreign languages.
Try tying the word to an action, I taught him a lot of GCSE science vocabulary that way, and once it was embedded, he didn't need the action.
It's also one of the reasons why he can sound quite old-fashioned at 18, he often uses a word he learned from us, and it's taking him a while to pick up slang.

My son has word finding difficulties. Everything is thingie 'where's my thingie?' But if I ask him to get the thingie ( insert its real name) he can get it. He knows more words than he can recall into conversation

My DS had and to some extent still has problems with word retrieval. His SALT suggested several activities and games to help him finding the right word, and we've really seen the results since using them.
Some examples of activities here
speech-language-therapy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100:wordretrieval&catid=11:admin&Itemid=101

Yes, it's called 'word finding diffuculties'.

Memory is not one thing. There are lots and lots of different types of memory.

Words are stored in a different part of the brain to other things, which is why you can have just word finding difficulties.

I found doing exercises to help the cerebellum really helped my DSs word finding problems. Which has really improved his life. School no longer think he's stupid.

What exercises did you do to help the cerebellum Phoenix?

Thanks for those Tambaboy.

The stairs exercise that Tinsley House recommends.

Thanks Phoenix, I know what you mean, I've read the tinsley house thread and have the book and dd takes the vitamin supplements but I've never tried the exercises

Not sure if its word retrieval or just learning words in the first place just seems so hard for her however many times she has heard the word if that makes sense and then I'm amazed at how good her memory is for other things.