Diane J. German, Ph.D.

Title:

Professor Emeritus
Special Education
Holder of the Ryan Endowed Chair in Special Education
National College of Education

Word-Finding, Language Difficulties

Programs/Classes Taught:

Graduate Courses Taught

Online Graduate Study at National Louis University
SPE 525: Child Word-Finding: Intervention for Students with Language and Learning Disabilities
SPE 526: Expressive Language Difficulties: Impact on Academic Learning
SPE 502: Language Development and Challenges in Children and Adolescents With Special Needs

Continuing Education Courses Taught

Word-Finding Assessment in Children and Adolescents: Beyond Picture Naming
ASHA Audio Course Available at ASHA store
Child Word Finding: Differential Diagnosis and Intervention
2015 ASHA Webinar, Language and Literacy in Elementary Schools Online Conference
Intervention in Word Finding
Online Self Study Course Available at Northern Speech Services

Areas of Expertise:

Areas of Expertise:

Word Finding Difficulties
Language and Learning Disabilities
Expressive Language Difficulties
Impact of Language Difficulties on Reading
Impact of Language Difficulties on Written Language

Biography:

Dr. Diane German is a professor at National Louis University, Chicago, Illinois and holder of the Ryan Endowed Chair in Special Education. She is an ASHA Fellow and a Fellow in the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities. She is author of the internationally known diagnostic test series for word finding assessment, the Test of Word Finding, Third Edition (TWF-3), the Test of Adolescent/Adult Word Finding (TAWF), and the Test of Word Finding in Discourse (TWFD). Further, she is author of the Word Finding Intervention Program, Second Edition (WFIP-2) and the trade book, It’s on the Tip of My Tongue, Word-Finding Strategies to Remember Names and Words You Often Forget. She has also authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, newsletter articles, technical reports, conference papers, research posters and presentations focused on her work in child word finding. As one of the world’s leading scholars in the study of Child Word Finding, she is frequently asked to conduct seminars in Child Word Finding at, state, regional, national, and international conferences. Her current research interests are in the areas of differential diagnosis of semantic and phonological word finding disruptions, semantic and phonological retrieval strategies, lexical factors of academic vocabulary words, and word finding and reading.

Education:

B.S. Indiana University
M.A. Northwestern University
PhD Northwestern University

Research and Interests:

Diagnostic Tests Published

German, D. J. (2015). Test of Word Finding, Third Edition (TWF-3). Austin, Texas: Pro-ed.

German, D. J. (2016). Test of Adolescent/Adult Word Finding, Second Edition (TAWF-2). Austin, Texas: Pro-ed.

German, D. J. (2000). Test of Word Finding, Second Edition (TWF-2). Austin, Texas: Pro-ed.

German, D.J. (1991). Test of Word Finding in Discourse (TWFD). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.

German, D.J. (1990). Test of Adolescent/ Adult Word Finding (TAWF. Austin, TX: Pro-ed.

German, D. J. (1986, 1989). Test of Word Finding (TWF). Dallas, Texas: DLM.

Books Published


	German, D.J. (2005). Word Finding Intervention Program, Second Edition (WFIP-2). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.
	German, D. J. (2001). It's On The Tip Of My Tongue, Word-Finding Strategies to Remember Those Names and Words You Often Forget. Available through School Specialties, Interactive and Janelle Publishers.
	German, D.J. (1993). Word Finding Intervention Program (WFIP). Austin, TX: Pro-ed.

Selected Publications

	German, D. J. (2015). Child word finding, Differential diagnosis guides differentiated assessment and instruction, In, Eds. Elaine Silliman and Ruth Huntley Bahr, Handbook of Communication Disorders, New York:Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
	German, D. J. (2014). Child word finding: Differentiated reading assessment. Dyslexia Connection, International Dyslexia Association Newsletter. German, D. J., Schwanke, J. K., & Ravid, R. (2012). Word Finding: Differentiated vocabulary instruction in the speech and language room. Communications Disorders Quarterly, 33(3), 146-156.
	German, D.J. (2009, February). Child word finding, Student voices enlighten us. Featured article in the ASHA Leader.
	German, D.J. (2008). Formulate a second hypothesis: Word finding based oral reading errors. Featured article in the Newsletter of the Illinois Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ISHA) 33(2), 10-12.
	German, D.J., & Newman, R.S. (2007). Oral reading skills of children with oral language (word finding) difficulties. Reading Psychology, 28:5, 397 – 442.
	Newman, R.S. & German, D.J. (2005). Life span effects of lexical factors on oral naming. Language and Speech, 48(2), 123-156.
	German, D.J., & Newman, R.S. (2004). The impact of lexical factors On children’s word finding errors. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 47 (3), 624-636.
	German, D.J. (2002). A phonologically based strategy to improve word-finding abilities in children, Communication Disorders Quarterly, 23(4), 179-192.
	Newman, R. S., & German, D.J. (2002). Effects of lexical factors on lexical access among typical language-learning children and children with word-finding difficulties. Language and Speech, 43(3), 285-317.

Contact Information:

Diane J. German, PhD

www.wordfinding.com

dgerman@nl.edu

Cookie Policy

Diane J. German, Ph.D.

Your Next Step is Within Reach.