Children should be encouraged to build a strong vocabulary. One may predict a child’s success in school with remarkable accuracy by measuring the amount of their vocabulary when they are four years old.
In addition, a child’s social and self-esteem continue to benefit from a large vocabulary throughout childhood and adulthood.
Your child’s vocabulary at home is just as important as the words they learn at school. Most of a child’s vocabulary comes from their parents, and research shows that when parents are actively engaged in their children’s education, it boosts motivation and performance.
Reading, talking, and playing are all simple ways to incorporate vocabulary learning into daily life. In addition, spending time with your family is a great way to give your child a head start.
Our top recommendations are as follows:
1. Bring new words to life
Find a picture of the noun online or in a book if your child is learning it. If the word is an adjective, think of objects that fit the description, such as a light lunch or a hardworking student; if it represents an emotion, demonstrate it with a facial expression or hand gesture. Prowl around the house or mosey to the store to practice your new verb skills.
2. Create mental images of the new vocabulary terms
You and your child may make a picture together that illustrates the meaning of the word “reluctant,” such as a scene in which the youngster is eating Brussel sprouts.
3. Make sure your kid is questioning any unfamiliar phrases they come across
Make sure they don’t feel awkward about figuring out the meaning of unfamiliar terms, whether they ask you, figure it out for themselves by examining the word’s context, or consult a dictionary. If they ask, stop what you’re doing and explain a new word, or if you’re curious, look up the definition with them. Enthusiastically Respond when someone teaches you a new word.
4. Constant communication is vital with your kid.
Parent-child interactions that are both intellectually and emotionally stimulating have been identified as a critical component in children’s vocabularies growth. You don’t have to think of anything exciting to say; if you’re stuck for ideas, talk about anything that happened to you when your kid was at school, your typical day at home, or something the whole family did together in the past, like a vacation or special event. When venturing further afield, whether to a gallery, a grocery store, or a train, discuss what you see and do and keep an eye out for unfamiliar words on signs and labels.
5. Engage your kid in back-and-forth discussions.
Talking to people is better than just talking to yourself. Ask your youngster open-ended inquiries about their day (no topic is too inconsequential to be discussed!) to encourage communication. The more they use their newly acquired vocabulary, the more comfortable they will get doing so.
6. Don’t reduce the sophistication of your language.
Make use of as many words as possible. No need to “dumb down” your speech; attempt to speak to them as if you were talking to another adult, using nouns to name new or strange objects and adjectives to convey feelings. Tier 2 terms are more difficult than Tier 1 words but are still within the range of regular conversational use. Your youngster will need to know vocabulary like “protocol,” “constant,” and “analysis” to do well in school.
7. Remember to use new vocabulary in appropriate situations
Your youngster will have a far easier time (and more fun) learning a word if they first encounter it in a meaningful sentence (whether that’s heard or read) rather than in isolation or as part of a list. If you say a co-worker is “disconsolate” because they lost their pet, they will have a better idea of what you mean until you explain the circumstances.
8. Place a word in several contexts
When introducing a new term to your child through “dropping,” use it in various contexts to ensure that they remember it. For example, if your child has learned the word “fortunate,” you could start by telling them how lucky you are to be a member of such a loving family, and then, later on, you could mention that you’re lucky that the bakery still has fresh bread even though it’s becoming late.
You could also give an example of how you would use the word and then have them come up with their own; for instance, you could describe your feelings of joy upon hearing the news of the birth of your child, while your child could say they were elated upon hearing the news of their birthday party.
9. Restate the previous statements three times
A child has to hear a new word several times before it sticks in their mind. According to experts, the average child needs to hear a new word between four and twelve times before it enters their long-term memory and becomes a permanent part of their vocabulary.
10. Don’t introduce a bunch of new words all at once!
Make it possible for the whole family to use the new vocabulary easily by introducing a modest number of words at a time, such as up to seven a week. Then, make them read books of their interest.
11. Encourage them to read books
It is an essential consideration but one that cannot be discounted. As expected, multiple studies have found that youngsters who read extensively have larger vocabularies than those who don’t. But, again, it is because books have a wider variety of words than in common usage.
12. Read to your kid.
Reading aloud to your child, even if they are an excellent reader, will allow them to understand and appreciate more complex works than they would be able to on their own. In addition, the more difficult vocabulary they encounter, the more likely the two of you will initiate a conversation.
13. Push your kid to read something other than books.
There are a plethora of resources for picking up new vocabulary. Your child may first see the word “ingredients” on a cereal box and the word “metallic” in a car manual, both of which are commonplace household items. Don’t forget the value of periodicals and other online reading material.
14. Let your kid pick out their books to read
Whether they read alone or you read to them, they will be more engaged in the story and more likely to ask questions about unfamiliar terms and concepts if they are interested in the topic or author.
15. Prompt them to read some challenging books
While exposing your child to more difficult books to increase their vocabulary, it’s also essential to give them cerebral “downtime” and an easy-to-digest, emotionally soothing read now and then.
16. Don’t constantly refer to the dictionary when learning new vocabulary.
It’s a common misconception that reading your child a dictionary explanation is the greatest approach to help them learn new words, but that’s not always the case. In the initial instance of learning a new term, you can look for clues in the context in which it is used. If you cannot locate any such hints, a simple definition, such as “ecstatic,” meaning “very delighted,” would suffice.
17. Assist your kid in searching for word origins
Consider other terms with the root ‘and’ that your child already understands, like audio and audience. If they didn’t comprehend the word ‘audible’ in the sentence, ‘Lily was scarcely audible,’ for example. Your child will then realize that the sentence expresses how quietly Lily is speaking and that the word being taught is related to hearing.