‘It’s on the tip of my tongue’-Word Finding Activities

Description

Perfect for children who know what they want to say, but struggle to find the right word when speaking. This colourful pack is designed to help children who have word finding’ or ‘word retrieval’ difficulties – the feeling when a child knows and understands a particular word but has problems retrieving or recalling  it – it’s a feeling that many people recognise… “It’s on the tip of my tongue”

This highly visual word finding activities pack offers a range of fun, engaging speech and language activities designed to improve:

  • Word retrieval skills
  • Vocabulary development
  • Semantic processing (understanding word meaning)
  • Phonological processing

Clear instructions and sample ‘scripts’ are included making the pack suitable for parents supporting speech and language at home, speech and language professionals, and teachers and support staff to use (KS1, KS2, SEN).

For more information see below:

Ref: WIP9-2 Download Sample

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Word-finding difficulties (word retrieval difficulties) in children often occur in the wider context of a diagnosis such as Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). These difficulties can lead to an ongoing impairment that has a significant impact on everyday communication, speaking, and expressive language skills. This highly visual word-finding activities pack offers a range of fun, engaging speech and language therapy activities designed to improve:

  • Word retrieval and recall
  • Vocabulary development
  • Semantic processing (understanding word meaning)
  • Phonological processing 

It also includes practical strategies to support children who struggle to find the right words when speaking, helping them to access, store, and retrieve vocabulary more easily.

Based on an original idea by Sarah Parkin, this pack’s highly visual approach to vocabulary retrieval and storage was developed by Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist Helen Rippon, and is specifically designed to support children with word finding and expressive language difficulties.

Clear instructions and sample ‘scripts’ are included, making the pack easy to use for:

  • Parents supporting speech and language at home
  • Teachers and teaching assistants (KS1 / KS2 / SEN support)
  • Speech and Language Therapists and professionals

Although the pack is designed for children with word-finding difficulties, the activities in this resource can also be used with pupils with poorly developed vocabulary levels with no specific language disorder. It has been designed as a structured speech and language intervention programme that can be followed from beginning to end, or used flexibly to suit the individual needs of each child.

The activities in this pack are wide-ranging, practical, and engaging, supporting children to build stronger connections to words through repeated practice and visual support.

To see other resources written by Sarah Parkin see Time for Sounds Nursery and Reception.

What does Word Finding include?

This pack is a large resource and contains a wealth of activities, including quizzes, “silly sentences”, odd one out and barrier games. Session 1 provides an Introduction to Word Finding including the messy cupboard activity and the jigsaw pieces and word wheel. The following seven individual session plans each provides 3 activities to support elements of the word wheel  (eg What does it do? What group does it belong to? Feels like/looks like).

  • Session 1: Introduction to word finding. Activities include: How many words, speed naming, and the messy cupboard.
  • Session 2: What does it do? (function of objects)
  • Session 3: Where does it go? (location concepts)
  • Session 4: What group does it belong to? (categories)
  • Session 5: What does it go with? (associations)
  • Session 6: Feels like/looks like? (describing features)
  • Session 7: What words sound the same/what sound does it begin with? (phonological awareness)
  • Session 8: What sound does it begin with? (initial sounds)

Age: 4-7 years (Early Years/KS1)

Format: PDF file, 124 pages, 2 pages of introductory text, 8 detailed session plans and full instructions (each with 3 or 4 activities and suggestions for extension exercises), 47 pages of colourful illustrations for games and activities, 51 pages of repeat black and white illustrations included for the economy of printing.

Snippet: Upgrade your account to send specially selected extracts of this resource, via our website, to parents and carers for homework exercises. The snippets for this resource include a fun ‘jigsaw pieces’ activity to help children practice word retrieval. ‘If we can’t think of the word, we can use the clues on these special jigsaw pieces to help us find the word we want to use’.

  • What do you do with it?
  • Where do you see it?
  • What group does it belong to?
  • What goes with it?
  • How does it feel?
  • What does it look like?
  • What words sound the same?
  • What sound does the word begin with?

Additional information

Development Age

3 to 5 years, 5 to 7 years

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