I know the feeling, I worked on a girl scout summer camp in Wisconsin, many moons ago and remember having to deal with one girl who had a bit of a paddy and threw her jumper on the floor, which I told her to pick up again - I had to keep repeating myself all the time and in the end pointed at the blooming thing on the floor to get my point across - all the time wondering to myself, why on earth doesn´t she understand what I want - until she said "Oh you mean my sweater"!!!!!!!!!!!!
God knows what my face must have looked like when they started talking about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!!! urgh!!