Written Word Finding

Sometimes a person who is unable to look at an object and subsequently name it can look at the written word associated with that object, read it aloud correctly, and then verbally answer the question, "What is this?" with the name of the object.

So, you show a photograph of a cup. The person says, "glass." You show a list of written words, one of which is "c-u-p." The person is able to locate the correct word, and read it aloud. Then you show the photograph again, and ask, "What is this?" and the person correctly verbalizes "cup."

Hierarchy of Cues and Verbal Feedback

In general, during a confrontational naming task, cues are as follows:

1. Extra time (about 15 seconds)
   
2. Function, location, property cues (i.e. semantic feature analysis)
   
3. Cloze condition cueing such as "You sleep in a _________."
4. Initial letter cue or
   
5. Phonemic cue

Verbal feedback should consist of:

"That's right." or "That's correct."
"That's wrong." or "That's not correct."

Additionally, verbal feedback can provide the person with information about what he or she is doing correctly, such as: "That's right. You allowed yourself extra time to think before you answered."

Or, conversely, what he or she is doing incorrectly, as in: "That's not correct. Try to wait before you answer. Give yourself extra time to find the word."