Vocabulary in children

Building Your Child’s Vocabulary | Reading Rockets

By: Reading Rockets

Talking to and reading with your child are two terrific ways to help them hear and read new words. Conversations and questions about interesting words are easy, non-threatening ways to get new words into everyday talk. Here are some ideas to get you started.

All parents want their child to do well in school. One way to help your child is to help them build their vocabulary. Beginning readers use knowledge about words to help them make sense of what they're reading. The more words a reader knows, the more they are able to comprehend what they're reading or listening to.

Talking to and reading with your child are two terrific ways to help them hear and read new words. Conversations and questions about interesting words ("The book says, 'The boy tumbled down the hill,' and look at the picture! How do you think he went down the hill?") are easy, non-threatening ways to get new words into everyday talk.

Sharing a new word with your child doesn't have to take a long time: just a few minutes to talk about the word and then focus back on the book or conversation. Choose which words to talk about carefully — choosing every new word might make reading seem like a chore. The best words to explore with your child are ones that are common among adult speakers but are less common to see in the books your child might read.

When introducing new words to your young learner, keep the following four helpful hints in mind:

First, provide a simple, kid-friendly definition for the new word:

Enormous means that something is really, really big.

Second, provide a simple, kid-friendly example that makes sense within their daily life:

Remember that really big watermelon we got at the grocery store? That was an enormous watermelon!

Third, encourage your child to develop their own example:

What enormous thing can you think of? Can you think of something really big that you saw today? That's right! The bulldozer near the park was enormous! Those tires were huge.

Lastly, keep your new words active within your house.

Over the next few days and weeks, take advantage of opportunities to use each new vocabulary word in conversation.

Take the time to share new words and build your child's vocabulary. You'll be enormously glad you did!

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• View this article in Spanish.

Reading Rockets (2009)

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7 ways to build your child's vocabulary

If you want your child to have a rich and fulfilling life, one of the best things you can do is help build your child’s vocabulary. Research shows strong language ability is associated with a number of positive things, including happiness, friendships, connections with family, academic success and a satisfying career.

Building your child’s language ability is not something you should wait to do until they’re old enough to go to school. Vocabulary development is extremely rapid. Between birth and second grade, children, on average, learn about 5,200 root words.

The ability to quickly interpret words at 18 months can determine the size of a child’s vocabulary later in childhood.

By grades three and four, vocabulary also is closely related to children’s ability to understand what they read. This is partly because a child’s vocabulary is a strong indicator of a child’s knowledge of the world.

As one who researches the best ways to develop children’s literacy, here are seven things that I believe parents and educators can do to help build children’s language and vocabulary skills.

1. Talk about objects and events that interest the child

Talk about something that has the child’s attention. A mother may notice her 8-month-old baby staring at a large cat and say, “Oh look at the nice kitty. She has such pretty eyes and soft fur.” Such interactions may also occur when a child points to something and starts trying to talk about it, indicating excited interest. These exchanges are prime opportunities for adults to name, describe and explain things. Occasions when parents and children talk about things they are both attending to are powerful instructional moments. Words are paired with objects, events and emotions. The importance of these exchanges is shown by the fact that the amount of pointing by children at 18 months is related to language development at 42 months.

2. Have many conversations with children

The amount of language children hear during conversations with adults in the first 18 to 24 months of life matters. Language areas of the child’s brain are rapidly developing. The ability to translate sounds into meaningful words is rapidly improving. Linking sounds to meanings quickly enables one to continue to make sense from the words they are hearing. The speed with which children assign meaning to words is strongly related to the amount of language they have heard as part of adult-child conversations.

3. Engage in sustained interactions

By the time children are 2, it is not only the quantity but also the quality of the conversations they hear that matters. At this point to really foster your child’s language growth, don’t be in a hurry – talk with your child about particular objects or events for a decent amount of time. It’s not necessarily a certain amount of time that matters. But there should be at least eight to 10 back-and-forth exchanges between the parent and the child. When children are verbal, these back-and-forth exchanges that take place over many turns are especially valuable.

Indeed, preschool children who have longer-lasting conversations show faster brain development and more efficient processing of information than those who have fewer and shorter conversations.

4. Read and discuss books

One of the most powerful of all shared activities is book reading. Books can be shared and enjoyed from the first year of life. They provide endless opportunities to name objects, animals and action. These experiences can be repeated over and over. The activity also gives parents a time to bond with their child while talking about favorite pictures, events and stories.

5. Use varied words while expanding world knowledge

Children acquire knowledge rapidly as they learn words that refer to more complex concepts. As time goes on, these words will be used during conversations about new ideas and experiences. For example, during a trip to an aquarium a child might see fascinating creatures as their parent names the animal, talks about parts of its body – its fins and tail, for instance – and how it moves. Or, during a trip to the grocery store, one can name objects, discuss their attributes, talk about where they come from and much more.

6. Talk about past events

Through language we are able to travel through time to past and future events. As parents talk with children about experiences from the past, they tend to use novel words and children, in turn, are encouraged to use them. For example, a parent may say, “Do you remember when we went to the aquarium? The child responds: "Yes, we saw that big big fish with wings.” To which the parent replies: “Yes that was an enormous stingray.” Regular conversations about the past foster vocabulary learning.

7. Engage in pretend play

Language enables children to construct and live in imaginary worlds. The talk that occurs as they enact their roles in these imaginary worlds leads them to expand their vocabulary.

For example, two children are playing with action figures that represent doctors. One child holds a doctor figure and the other is playing with one that is lying on the ground. The doctor says, “Be quiet I need to use my stethoscope.” The “injured” figure says, “OK. Is that the thing you use to hear my heart?” Here we see one child informally teaching a sophisticated word. The second child is learning what a stethoscope is and, as they play, will gain some understanding of how it is used.

These evidence-based methods are just a few ways that parents can help build their children’s vocabulary and knowledge of the world.

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children Dictionary for parents

The quality and quantity of a child's vocabulary largely determine the level of speech development in general. The formation and development of a dictionary is one of the main directions of the speech development of preschoolers. This topic has been the subject of numerous studies over many decades, and does not lose its relevance even now. Currently, there are trends of deterioration in the level of speech development of children, including the scarcity of their vocabulary. The reasons for this deplorable situation are heredity, and congenital pathologies of development, and the imperfection of the educational system, and the lack of competence of teachers and parents on the speech development of preschoolers. Usually, vocabulary work is most intensively carried out in the early and younger preschool years, but it should continue in the older age groups of the kindergarten.

There are certain norms for the development of speech, an indicator of which, in particular, is the number of words a child knows. By the end of the first year of life, the first words appear (10-15 words). Babbling (lyalya, mom, dad) and onomatopoeic (meow, bibi). During the 2nd and 3rd years of life, the child has a significant accumulation of vocabulary. By 1.5 years - 100 words, by 2 years - 300-400 words, by 3 years - 1000-1500 words, and at 6-7 years old the active vocabulary is from 3500 to 5000 words.

Before entering school, a test is mandatory, which includes an assessment of speech development. And recently, the statistics have been disappointing, because most first-graders show signs of delayed speech development. This is a serious problem, which leads to the fact that such children are simply not ready for school. And first of all, this affects the acquisition of literacy - children simply do not have enough knowledge to pick up test words.

To prevent this, effective measures must be taken to enrich the child's vocabulary so that he knows as many words as possible before entering school.

A child's vocabulary is of two types - passive and active. Passive vocabulary is those words, the meaning of which the child understands, but does not use in his everyday speech. The active vocabulary includes those words that the child not only understands, but also uses them in speech and writing. As a rule, the passive dictionary is always larger than the active one.

Thus, the main task is to expand the passive vocabulary, as well as help in activating the active vocabulary. The most active period, when the child begins to master the largest number of words, is the age of 1 year. If at 12 months a child knows about 12 words, then by the age of 4 he already masters up to 2000 words.

It is important to understand that words are not acquired by themselves - this is the result of systematic work to expand the child's vocabulary. And the work must be carried out every day - only in this way can good results be achieved. A huge role in this process is played by parents, on whose participation it directly depends on how quickly the child begins to speak and how rich his vocabulary will be.

There are a number of recommendations to help form and increase the vocabulary of preschool children. Most of them do not require much effort on the part of parents.

All children are in different conditions of speech development, so the number of words they know is different in each case. But there is a certain list of terms and concepts that children should know by the age of 5-7:

• Household dictionary (names of toys, dishes, hygiene and household items).
• Spatial orientation (up, down, right, left).
• Concepts of time (second, minute, hour, year), days of the week, months and seasons.
• Dictionary of natural history (names of natural phenomena, animals, plants, birds that are in its immediate environment).
• Numerals (ideally up to one hundred).
• Social science terms (names of holidays, words denoting people's work, human values, etc.).
• Sports (football, hockey, etc.).
• Words denoting emotions, feelings and experiences.
• Parts of the human body.
• Vehicle names.
• Colors and shades.

There are many ways to build a child's passive and active vocabulary. Below we list the main recommendations, the observance of which will allow you to quickly achieve results.

Constant communication with the child is the base that allows the child to learn new words, ask an adult about the objects and phenomena that he observes.

During communication, one should try to use not only definitions familiar to the child, such as “small”, “big”, “good”, etc. Introduce synonyms into speech that make speech more colorful, use metaphors and epithets.

It is important to understand that the speech of preschoolers mainly consists of nouns and verbs, so you need to use adjectives as often as possible. Children hardly remember them, so you need to acquaint the child with the shape and color, smell, material, purpose of objects.

You should not just read books aloud, but do it slowly and with intonation. Periodically, you need to stop and ask the child if he understood the meaning of what he read, or if some words are incomprehensible to him. This is very important, because even when reading the simplest book, a child may have a lot of questions that you don’t even know about. Explain the meaning of unfamiliar words to him, and also ask questions about what he read.

You can observe almost everything with your child. Conduct an inspection of the premises in which you visit (during a trip to visit, visiting a clinic, etc.), observe with him natural phenomena, children in the yard, animals and birds.

But don't just be an observer - comment on what you see. Actively share your observations, describe the feelings that you experience while doing this. The observations themselves should be interesting for the child, so if he does not want to look at the children playing on the playground, but wants to take part in this himself, then do not prevent him from doing this.

Looking at pictures and pictures in books contributes to the development of a passive vocabulary. You should describe what is shown in the illustration, as well as ask leading questions to the child.

Drawing up a story from pictures is very helpful. First, you can disassemble each image separately, and then, together with your child, compose a simple mini-story based on these pictures.

Here you can combine business with pleasure. Take your child to the kitchen, for example, where you can cook family dinner together. There is just a huge number of new items, the names and purposes of which may be unknown to him. Demonstrate and name the available kitchen items to him, tell him exactly what they are for.

You can discuss the classification of products with him. So he will understand that vegetable oil is needed for frying, and not to drink it, that it is more convenient to eat soup with a spoon, etc. Surely the child will want to help you, so you can entrust him with some simple and safe task (stir salad with a spoon, sort out buckwheat, etc. ).

Play is the form of learning that is most effective in childhood. In this case, you do not need any special devices, so you can play almost anywhere.

Here are a few examples of such games:

• We name the attribute of an object and correlate a certain object with it. For example, large (elephant, skyscraper, world), white (bread, sheet of paper, etc.).
• Guess the profession. Examples: a person who drives a car ... (driver), a person who sells products ... (salesman).
• "I know five." At an early age, it is important to know not only a lot of words, but also to classify them into certain categories. You can invite the child to name 5 types of animals, types of transport, etc.
• "Edible-inedible". You name any word and throw the ball to the child. If the word is “edible” (ice cream, apple, watermelon), then the child catches the ball, and if it means an inedible object, then the ball is discarded.
• "Say the opposite." You say a word, and the child must name its antonym: hot - cold, slow - fast, clean - dirty.
• "Who lives where?". You name an animal or bird and throw the ball to the child. He catches the ball, names the place where the animal lives, and returns the ball. Examples: - a bear - in a den, a fox - in a hole, etc.

Games greatly influence the increase in words that the child will later use in his everyday speech. It is important to use as many complex and unfamiliar terms and concepts as possible, explaining in detail what they mean. Remember that all activities should be carried out in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, as well as praise the child, even if his progress at this stage is insignificant.

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Expanding the child's vocabulary!

An active leap in the development of a child's speech occurs from 2 to 3 years: at this time, the vocabulary increases by 5-10 times. If at the age of two the baby uses only 50 of the simplest words, then by the age of 3 years his vocabulary can already reach 300-700 words. What words form the basis of a three-year-old's vocabulary? First of all, these are the names of well-known objects and phenomena: toys, animals, body parts, dishes, furniture. At this time, the child begins to actively communicate, and his speech is enriched with generally accepted words, often used in dialogues: hello, bye, thank you, please, goodbye . It can also indicate the qualities of different people: kind, good, evil, beautiful . Gives his name, gender and age. Distinguishes singular and plural nouns and verbs (“car is driving” and “cars are driving”), understands the meaning of prepositions (that is, knows exactly what needs to be done if they say: “put the ball in the box” or “look for a pencil on the table”) . In addition, three-year-olds already have a good understanding of short stories and fairy tales (both based on illustrations and without them).

• Teach your child to replace “childish” names of objects, actions, people with their correct names: not “beep”, but a car, not “lyalya”, but a doll, not “yum-yum”, but there.
• Repeat an unfamiliar word with your child several times, come up with different phrases and sentences with this word.
• Train your child's speech apparatus by repeating tongue-twisters with him: "Oop-op-op-op - I'm making daddy's soup", "Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo - the children run in the garden", "Ko-ko -cat loves milk", "Is-li-is the soup salty, not salt!".

At 4 years of life, children begin to better understand the relationship between objects and phenomena and make simple conclusions. At this age, they ask especially many questions (How? Why? Why? What is it called? What does it mean?). At 4 years old, a child's active vocabulary already reaches 1500 - 2000 words. The child is able to build complex sentences, uses prepositions and conjunctions (for, before, instead of, after, because, how much, when). The concepts of time and space are added to speech. The child understands what generalizing words are: plums, apples and pears are fruits, a jacket and coat are clothes. Children replace unfamiliar words with “this” or “that” if they don’t know the exact name (“Give me that!”).

• Show your child pictures that make sense and ask him to find a common word for the objects, animals or people shown. Such an exercise develops not only logical thinking , but also fantasy (for example, if you show a child images of boys and girls, both “children” and “kids”, “pupils”, “friends” can become generalizing words and others).

At 5 years old the child must master all the sounds of his native language, and his vocabulary can already reach 3000 words. He confidently uses all parts of speech and is able to describe almost all objects of the reality around him.

• Name some word and ask the child to suggest the opposite in meaning: hot-cold, soft-prickly, bright-dim, light-dark.
• Choose any object and name the adjectives that describe this object with the child in turn. For example, an apple is ripe, red, smooth, tasty, juicy, appetizing.
• To stop the child's speech from being monosyllabic and jerky, try to make up stories with him, looking at the picture, let him describe those who are depicted in it, what they do, how they look, how they treat each other, etc.

Closer to 6 years children's speech is actively enriched with figurative concepts and phrases (at least gouge out the eye, no light, no dawn, eat to satiety). The child begins to understand grammatical rules, correctly builds words in a sentence, tries to guess what an unfamiliar word means.

• Name different words for your child, for example, items of clothing and ask them to exclude the superfluous: T-shirt, pants, dress, bucket, coat.
• Introduce proverbs and sayings into communication, explain in which case they are used: for example, during lunch: “And Vaska listens and eats”, during training or cleaning: “Without labor you can’t even pull a fish out of a pond” or “ Hurry up and make people laugh. "