Filling Up with Wonderful Words

Contributed by Family Programs Director, Julie Douglas

 

Somewhere between the corn flakes and the oatmeal, I heard a dad say to his very young son, “We are in the cereal aisle.  These rows that we are walking up and down are called aisles.” 

The little boy giggled and sing-songed, “We’re in the aisle, we’re in the aisle.”   As often happens in the grocery store, I continued to pass this same pair as we worked our way through the store.   “Daddy, this is the ketchup AISLE!  Daddy, let’s go to the cookie AISLE.  Daddy, do we have aisles at our house? Daddy….”   At some point I am sure Dad wished he had a nickel for every time he heard the word AISLE.

What’s happening here was more than an ordinary family shopping trip. Perhaps without even realizing it, this young dad was giving his child an important educational gift; he was helping his son grow his vocabulary.  The beauty of this experience is that it did not involve flashcards or a big plan of action.  There were no drills or lectures or boring repetition.  It happened naturally, using only a parent who was willing to talk and a child who was happy to listen.

So what’s the big deal about a little boy learning a new word on a Saturday morning shopping trip?  Well, that new word will be added to the 1000+ words (according to researchers such as Hart and Risely) that the child will know by age 3. That same child may have as many as 5000 expressive words in his vocabulary by the time he starts Kindergarten.  And researchers agree that children with larger vocabularies are more successful when learning to read.  In fact, studies point to a correlation between the size of a child’s vocabulary at age three and the child’s reading skills in third grade. Children who enter school with smaller vocabularies are at a distinct disadvantage and the gap grows exponentially in the early elementary years.   Children from low income families typically are not exposed to the quantity and quality of words that their peers hear.  

How can a parent help to grow a child’s vocabulary?  Obviously talking to a child is important.  But a few tweaks of the natural parent/child interactions can create rich, vocabulary-building experiences. 

1. Talk to your child. Keep in mind a child can understand more words than they are able to speak.  Visualize yourself filling your child with rich, interesting words.

2. Help your child understand a new word by using it in context.  The grocery shopping dad did an excellent job of connecting a new word with a real experience for the child. Don’t shy away from a  word that is unfamiliar to your child. Use it and explain or show what it means.

3. Give and take.  Talk to your child AND listen and respond to what she says (or babbles, depending on the age of the child!)

4.  Read to your child!!!  We tend to use the same words over and over in our daily speech, but by reading aloud we expose children to words that are used less frequently. For example, in the book THE NAPPING HOUSE by Audrey Wood, the author uses six synonyms for sleeping: napping, snoring, dreaming, dozing, snoozing, and slumbering. When was the last time you used “slumbering” in conversation?  Reading aloud and talking about the illustrations and story is a fun and effective way to pump up a child’s vocabulary.

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