According to the Illinois Early Learning Project, some children start kindergarten with twice the vocabulary of other children. Parents have tremendous influence in early literacy skills, and vocabulary is a crucial part of those skills. Children absorb the language around them, and hearing conversations and being engaged in conversations about all kinds of things will naturally build a child's vocabulary. Children need opportunities to express themselves orally as well, knowing that their words are heard and valued as part of the family.
Instructions
Increase the Vocabulary with Activities
1. Talk to children about what you are doing or they are doing. Engaging in frequent conversation and being sure to answer your child's questions will go a long way in building a child's vocabulary. Also, make sure to ask your child questions to engage him in conversations and to teach the way a conversation goes back and forth, practicing speaking and taking turns in talking.
2. Read to your child daily and make it interesting to your child by varying the pitch of your voice or by using fun voices. Ask your child what will happen next, or pause during the story to let her finish the sentence during familiar stories. Ask your child to point to different objects on the page as you read about them.
3. Keep a journal with your child. This can be a special book to record special happenings, perhaps illustrated by your child's artwork or with photos of the event. Or you can keep a regular weekly journal to discuss the week's happenings. Another variation is to keep a special word book. When your child learns a fun new word, a silly word or a special impressive big one, write it in your word book. Make this as interactive a process as you can and review together the entries in your book often.
4. Play with words. Get a joke book from the library and share one each day. Play tongue twisters and make up rhymes or raps together. Play the opposite game; say a word and have your child come up with the opposite. Do the same thing with synonyms. For instance, try to come up with all the different words you can think of that mean the same thing as "pretty."
5. Make lists together. Have your child help you with the grocery list or chore lists. If he is going to Grandma's for the weekend, make a list together of what needs to be packed. Make a reading chart and list all the books you read together. When the chart is full, go to the bookstore and buy a book as a reward. Or if that's not possible, go for a special library trip or let your child have a new reading privilege like 15 more minutes of quiet time with books before bedtime.
Tags: your child, child questions, child vocabulary, come with, Increase Vocabulary