BrainSTARS: Word Retrieval Jeanne E. Dise-Lewis, PhD, Margaret Lohr Calvery, PhD, and Hal C. Lewis, PhD, BrainSTARS

Help your child communicate his thoughts and ideas and mend "break downs" in conversation by providing words for him. Encourage conversation and discussion with as much assistance as necessary.

Use everyday settings and activities

1. To increase word usage and vocabulary, play word games such as "I Spy," "Twenty Questions," Scattegories™, Outburst Junior™, Scrabble™, and crossword puzzles.
2. Use everyday conversation to assist your child in using specific everyday vocabulary.
3. Allow ample time for your child to search his memory for the right word.
4. If your child cannot retrieve a specific word, encourage and prompt him with a description of the item (e.g., the letter it begins with, what it is used for, looks like, or its association). Accept the use of a gesture instead of the word.
5. If you know the word your child is seeking, provide it for him. Example:
   • Child: "In history, we are studying about when workers…."
   • Adult: "You are studying about the Industrial Revolution"
6. Be familiar with the topics of your child’s classes (abolition of slavery, photosynthesis, amphibians) so that you can provide vocabulary words for him as needed during discussion and homework.

Change the environment:

1. Provide a list of relevant vocabulary words for assignments, tests, and in-class discussions.
2. For written work, provide the list of "key" words to be included in completed assignments
3. Provide tests that include a list of possible answers from which to choose. For example use multiple choice, true/false, or matching tests rather than essay exams.
4. When assessing mastery, oral presentation may be more representative than written work as it allows the student to "talk around" words by describing them item in detail.
5. Give choices rather than asking open-ended questions.

Teach new skills:

1. When your child gets “stuck” on a word, first teach him to think of the bigger category and then describe its specific attributes. Example:
   • Child: "This weekend we went to the mountains to look at the…."
   • Adult: "What kind of thing are you thinking of?"
   • Child: "It’s a tree."
   • Adult: "Describe the tree to me."
   • Child: "It's the one that has heart-shaped leaves, and changes in the fall near Vail."
   • Adult: "Sounds like an aspen tree."
   • Child: "Yes, it is an aspen."
2. To build word usage, use vocabulary in regular and routine environments. Use relevant and specific vocabulary frequently, assisting retrieval by using pictures and examples.

See other BrainSTARS articles.

From BrainSTARS, Brain Injury: Strategies for Teams And Re-education for Students, © 2002 Jeanne Dise-Lewis, PhD. Used with permission. The manual is available in English and Spanish. For more information or to order copies, call 720.777.5470 or chris.moores@childrenscolorado.org. A short video on how to use the BrainSTARS manual is available at www.youtube.com/BrainSTARSprogram.

Jeanne Dise-Lewis, PhD is a child clinical psychologist, director of the Psychology Program for the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at The Children’s Hospital, and Professor of Psychiatry and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Dise-Lewis is a Magna cum Laude graduate of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania (MS in Human Learning and Development), and the University of Denver (PhD in Child Clinical Psychology). A member of the faculty of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center since 1984, Dr. Dise-Lewis has extensive experience in working with children and families of individuals who have acquired brain injuries. For the past 23 years, she has been the director of the Rehabilitation Psychology Services at The Children’s Hospital, creating several innovative programs of services for children who have medical needs and their families. She has developed workshops and presented papers nationwide in the area of pediatric traumatic brain injury.  She has been the principle investigator of three federal grants and has developed the BrainSTARS Manual, along with other innovative consultation programs regarding acquired brain injuries in children and adolescents. She is the PI of a grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention titled “An Investigation of Outcomes associated with Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury” and currently is the co-director of a Personnel Preparation grant funded by the US Department of Education, “Preparing School Psychologists to Meet the Needs of Students who have Acquired Brain Injury.” 

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