“The thing is on the what’s-it”

4/3/2017

or, why some people with dyslexia struggle to find the right word.

Have you ever noticed that some people mix up words when they’re talking? They may mispronounce the word, or say a word that sounds similar to the right one, or they may ummm and aaahhh as they try to remember the word they need.

This is an issue with word retrieval – having the right word on the tip of your tongue. Sometimes it’s called speed of lexical access – how quickly you can come up with the word you need.

This can be very funny to those listening, as they hear their friend talk of reading a mazagine, or riding up the estimator, but to those with the problem it can be very embarrassing.

So, what is going on? People with dyslexia usually think non-verbally. That means their thoughts don’t come as words in their mind. They usually think in pictures or images. Some get more of a sense of it.

They use this same approach when looking at words. Some words easily give a mental picture, but many don’t. It’s easier to picture ‘elephant’ than ‘was’, and many people with dyslexia find it easier to read the word ‘elephant’ than the word ‘was’!

As dyslexic people are talking they are mentally sorting through their own version of Google Images to find the word they want. They have in mind the picture of the thing they are talking about, but the word that goes with it may be missing, or come out wrong.

A mother told me about her eight-year-old daughter reading a book and coming to the word ‘jacket’, which she read as ‘warm coat’. This is likely to be because she was picturing the meaning of the word in her mind, and that was more important to her than the actual letters in the word.

As people with dyslexia are often creative and imaginative, they may group information differently in their minds. When asked to find the things that go together out of this group of pictures

they may choose boat and feather, because they can both sit on water, but a word-thinker may choose boat, coat and goat, because the words sound alike.

A teenager was repeating a story she had just heard. As she came to the words ‘station wagon’ she clasped her hands to her cheeks, said “Oh no!” and then said ‘wation stagon’. She then groaned and said “Oh. It’s happened again!”

A mother was chatting to me about her son’s school work. She remarked:

"Well, he is making process, but it's slow process."

Yes, dyslexia does tend to run in families.

Rapid Naming is a common test used to help find out if a person has dyslexia. It’s a simple test: the person has a certain time to look at rows of pictures of common things and say their names as fast as they can – horse, boat, leg, fork, box, tree etc. This is surprisingly difficult for many people. They usually start off well, but as they continue, they often slow down. They may hesitate on a certain picture, or say the wrong word altogether (for example, fork/spoon, shoe/sock). One young man hesitated for several seconds on the picture of a butterfly before eventually saying ‘flying thing’.

(Note: Rapid Naming is not a test for dyslexia – it is used as a small part of the process of finding out whether someone has a specific learning difficulty).

Another thing I’ve noticed in my work as an assessor is that many people with dyslexia have very good listening comprehension – they have no problem understanding what people are saying.
Many find it harder to put their thoughts into words, so their oral expression score may be lower. Of course, it is usually even harder to put their thoughts into writing.

Unfortunately, this can lead to people around them making wrong judgements. We hear a person speaking hesitantly, with lots of umms and aahhs, and mispronounced words and we think they are ‘a bit slow’. We hear people mixing up words and think they’re trying to be funny, so slap them on the back and roar with laughter. We see an email or piece of handwriting with even ‘simple’ words spelled wrongly and think the person must be poorly educated, or even stupid.

This problem can lead to frustration, embarrassment and humiliation for the person. They often become very quiet, as it’s easier not to speak much at all.

Some learn to roll with the punches and become the clown, as it then looks like their mistakes were intentional – they are the funny guy.

So, what can be done about problems with word retrieval?
Can this be fixed, or at least, helped?

Dyslexic people tend to think very quickly. It takes much longer to think with words than it does to think with pictures. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words”!

Learning to slow down their thinking helps people to identify their mental pictures more accurately. Learning the meaning of words along with the spelling and writing of them, gives an accurate mental picture of every part of that word.

But what if people who don’t have such issues, those like me who are good spellers, who can speak and read clearly and fluently, learnt to value those who have problems with words, but are creative, imaginative, out-of-the-box thinkers and valued them just as they are? It’s no coincidence that many artists, inventors, designers, musicians, mechanics, pilots, entrepreneurs etc. are dyslexic. The world needs those with dyslexia.

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