Developing a wide vocabulary is one of the most important things a child can do. It is fundamental and can help lay foundations for building social skills and confidence from childhood into adulthood. Alongside education, the amount of effort parents put into their children when it comes to teaching them vocabulary is crucial. Up to 95% of a child’s vocabulary stems from what their parents teach them which means parental involvement plays the biggest role in how well a child’s vocabulary develops. The good news is, it’s easy to do. Here are some suggestions.
Discuss new words together. If your child has been introduced to a new word, do your best to bring it to life. If it can be used to describe an emotion, show your child through hand gestures and facial expressions. If it is a verb, then act it out for your child. At this age, they best understand new words through expression and body language.
If your child is at a reading age, show them how it looks written down. It is important for children to learn words in different ways. Pictures are also a great way to remember new words. If the new word is detest, you could draw a picture of someone eating a mushroom to visualise how the word makes you feel.
Always keep conversations open with your child. Children are like sponges and absorb vocabulary a lot quicker than expected. The key is to stimulate your child, don’t worry if you feel your conversations are mundane, as long as they are contributing to the conversation and asking questions back, you’re on the right path.
Speak to your child as though they are another adult. Don’t avoid certain words thinking they’ll struggle with them. Talk to them as you normally would. You know they’ve become curious when they ask what the foreign word means. Keep at this and you’ll have a fully articulate child in no time!
