Specific Word Finding Difficulties - anyone any experience.

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finally we know what is causing DD's frustration with reading some words and when she is talking. She has a specific word finding difficulty.

Does anyone have any experience of this that they wouldn't mind sharing?

TIA

How old is she? Any other difficulties? What assessments has she had?

she is 6.5 so still young. She had 1.5hrs with a therapist today doing lots of 'stuff'. Although her results were very good the word finding problems were very clear. It affects her talking (lots of 'holding' language and sort of clicking/tutting whilst she tries to think of the words), reading (she knows all her phonics and her phonological processing is very strong but she says she can see letters that she can't get to come out although she can say all the sounds) and she substitutes words incorrectly so like sister/brother, door/window, picture naming she couldn't find the words for some pictures of things she knows and then she remembered them later.

dyslexia screening test was done recently because that is what I thought the problem was, I was only partially noticing the language issues and she hadn't managed to say that she sees it right in her head but can't say it until last week after the dyslexia test.

She had a WISC test as well a couple of weeks ago as we really weren't sure what the problems were related to. She came out with a lower verbal score and processing speed score (both still average though) but exceptional non verbal and working memory scores so overall had a gifted score.

no other difficulties as far as we know, not very coordinated and scotopic sensitivity/irlen syndrome but nothing we can see linked to this.

Therapist said no sign of anything ASD related, higher level language seemed ok.

oh and she is very sensory seeking apparently but the therapist said that wasn't an issue at all (my sister was similar for years but with no other problems) and just to let her sit and stroke things if she likes to.

Could it be auditory processing disorder? I know word finding can be a symptom of dyslexia and also APD but although they are linked you can have one without the other. I have 2 ds with both (and also irlen syndrome).
I may be away off the mark as I'm no expert but both my ds with APD have word finding difficulty. To be honest, their working memory is low too, unlike your dd, so I am just guessing. Might be worth looking up symptoms of APD though or getting more info. What was her cognitive processing like?
I did have a course of vision therapy (need a behavioural optometrist) for ds1 and it made a huge difference. Some experts have told me since that its a load of rubbish and doesn't work (though other unrelated experts have told me the opposite) but the results with his reading were amazing. DS1 was 6.5 when he had the therapy (which wasn't cheap and took a lot of hard work) but before he had it, he found reading lines of print impossible as his eyes seemed to stick to each word and he couldn't track text or get the words out. Yet he was gifted in areas of non verbal reasoning (though weak automatic naming and working memory).
Doesn't sound exactly like your dd but just another suggestion. Vision therapy is recommended by some for visual stress and irlen syndrome is a form of visual stress. It depends how open you are to new ideas really as not everyone believe it works. I can only talk from my experience. Given the difficulty ds1 had before having it though, I find it hard to believe that the change in him was a coincidence. Must have been down to the therapy.
I hope you get some answers. I feel for you. It's awful knowing something isn't right but not being able to pinpoint it. Sometimes it is a process of elimination as much as anything. Hope you get some answers soon.

thanks - she has had her glasses a year now so we are going to go back to the vision therapy place in the holidays and I was going to ask them about what 'other' stuff they do. I know they do tracking checks and I know they can do sessions of therapy. I also want them to recheck her eye convergence properly (last year she was with a different optician who did all those bits and then we just went to this place to try the colorimetry machine - at the time it was purely due to light and contrast sensitivity, we weren't aware of the effect on her reading until she got her coloured glasses).

Auditory processing is fine, she scores well with anything for that. I think her great memory is what has been helping mask this until now to be honest. There doesn't seem to be anything else wrong, just the word finding problem. The lady did say she was a bit unusual!

My son has word finding problems but it is part of a larger syndrome. He s only just 5 so we haven't seen the reading side of it yet but he is exactly the same with confusing words for other words and taking a long time to think of the right word for things. So far we have only had speech therapy and they have shown us how to help him by giving him lots of time to find the words himself and encouraging him lots. He gets frustrated when he can't find a word and we have found counting to ten really helps him.

thanks Geneticsbunny.

he might not have a problem with reading - from what I gather it doesn't always affect reading, presumably partly because the word is given but I don't really understand it all. At least you have caught it early. I had no idea my daughter had a problem and she seems to be getting worse, I presume because she is learning so many more words that she is finding it harder and harder to locate them.

I am trying to make more of an effort to really make it obvious I am listening when she is talking now that I realise she can't help all the repetitions etc. She has her first session in just over a week and the lady said she will try and get a few in for the 2 week Easter holiday to try and be quite intensive which is good.

My son has serve word finding issues but its part of a bigger picture. My private salt said on the whole if a child has word finding issues past 7 they always will. But he can be learnt techniques around this to help him. Basically his brain is wired up wrong and its too late to re wire it.

But that just my experience

gosh really 2boysnamedR, that is quite scary because with so many things they say they can't tell until a child is about 7. At least DD's SALT seems pretty certain they can help her with some techniques. We saw an NHS SALT when she was 4 and were told there wasn't anything wrong and to just give her time. I therefore assumed there wasn't.

My private salt and nhs see my son from polar points of view. Private salt has put him in the bottom 1% and nhs discharged him.

However they can learn to cope so rather than where's my thingie? They can say where's those things I put on my legs? The blue ones?

As long as the conversation can start to flow again it becomes less noticeably - but still frustrating for them I guess.

My son has other things going on including dyspraxia so he's pretty bad

The private SALT told us the NHS wouldn't even look at her because her scores were good for her age which I think is a pity as presumably that means some children who don't have a grandparent able to pay for their therapy will be left struggling just because they happen to be bright.

It is reassuring to hear that they can learn to cope.

How does his dyspraxia affect him? I always thought dyspraxia was coordination based and it is only recently I realise just how complex a condition it is affecting so much more than just movement.

Luckily DD only seems to have her visual perception problems along with this language difficulty.

Yes I feel very sorry for all the kids who's parents belive the nhs salt.

Dyspraxia does effect his co ordination but I think a lot of the sn's over lap. He can't seem to get the nerves to work in a joined up way with his brain, weather that's telling his brain wher his limbs are or pulling a word out from memory and getting it out if his mouth. His most noticeable problem is his speech.

I agree - there are so many overlaps and links between different splds. I think that goes to prove it is a 'wiring' issue at the root of them.