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Expanding your child’s vocabulary
I’ve gotten the question “how can I help widen my child’s vocabulary?” several times and the answer is: There are several ways that you can help your child expand their vocabulary!
We will explore some ways that you can help broaden your child’s vocabulary.
Why is vocabulary important?
Having a wide vocabulary helps children, (and adults), better communicate with one another as well as more thoroughly express themselves.
Having a comprehensive vocabulary also helps people express their thoughts and ideas more precisely and leaves less room for assumption or misunderstanding.
Here are a few ways that you can help your child expand their vocabulary!
#1 Talk with them!
The power of conversation is remarkable! Having frequent and thorough conversations with a child can help them not only learn new words but it puts the words into context as they are used in real-life conversations.
Now, with this try to be mindful of how you are speaking to the child. Try to be mindful of making sure you aren’t “dumbing down” the things you’re telling them so that they can understand. Instead, make a point to use all the big words and then follow up with explaining what they mean.
For example say your child is wondering why it rains. You might be tempted to explain “the rain falls from the clouds” instead you could introduce some vocabulary words and explain a little further “The water evaporates from the Earth into the sky, it then condenses into clouds. When the clouds get an abundant amount of water built up they become heavy and begin to release the water. The water then falls back down to Earth in the form of precipitation which is another word for rain!”
Let the child ask questions and answer them to your best ability! This is how they learn! They might ask you “what does abundant mean?” Answer them and say something like “well abundant means that there is a large amount, so when I said an abundant amount of water it just means that there’s a whole lot of water!”
#2 Read to them!
Reading to your child helps introduce words that you may not commonly use on a regular basis! Expanding your child’s vocabulary is all about introducing them to new words with context!
When you are reading let them ask you what words mean, or if you suspect they don’t know a word ask them if they know and explain if they don’t.
Tip: Try to remember some of the new words from the story and use them in your daily conversations. The more frequently the child hears the word the more likely they will retain the word and how to use it.
#3 Encourage them to read!
This goes right along with #2, but this time they are the ones doing the reading. Having a child read aloud can help you identify and work on words that they haven’t grasped yet.
Encourage the child to read books at their reading level, as well as above their reading level! They are sure to encounter plenty of new words as they slowly advance to more difficult books. If your child is getting frustrated also have them read books that are a little below their level, this will help give them a confidence boost.
#4 Use vocabulary building manipulatives!
These are all great options to help engage your child in some vocabulary building activities! While the below suggestions can be great supplements, I wouldn’t suggest using these as your sole source of vocabulary building.
Age: 2+
The child will have the opportunity to sticker images of familiar words and learn new ones with your help
Age: 2+
With these cards you could use them to teach the names of the objects and then talk about the object. “That looks like a delicious red apple, I bet it is juicy!”
Age: 8+
Fun restaurnt-themed game with engaging conversation prompts gets the whole family sharing about their day, recent experiences, thoughts, insights and much more!
Vocabulary Builder Flash Cards
Age: 2+
Another set of photo cards that comes with multiple game ideas to make learning fun!
Age: 10+
Kids & families will have fun using this card deck to broaden their vocabulary & learn the origin of interesting words & phrases borrowed from other languages!
#5 Use a LA curriculum that encourages vocabulary building!
This suggestion is really more directed towards homeschoolers as we get to choose what materials we use to educate our children.
There are really great curriculums out there, but I will recommend what has worked wonders for my family! The Good and The Beautiful has an awesome, affordable and comprehensive curriculum.
The above example is right out of my daughter’s 3rd grade LA curriculum and so now I will be mindful of including these words in our conversations.
Just yesterday I was doing a lesson with my 3rd grader and noticed that they really make a point to incorporate vocabulary words right into the curriculum and reading materials! I am not an affiliate of The Good and The Beautiful and I earn absolutely nothing by recommending them. I simply recommend them because I think they are an awesome company that provides amazing curriculum.
Expanding your child’s vocabulary
I hope one of these suggestions has sparked some ideas so that you can start expanding your child’s vocabulary! Really, through conversation alone children can learn so much! Keep talking and answering questions, and encourage them to ask and talk too!
Other Articles you might be interested in:
Lessons Our Chickens Have Taught My Children
Things Grandparents Can Teach Children
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