I have a lot of friends with little children, who often ask my advice about how to support their son or daughter as they begin to speak, read and write. Vocabulary development is the key. This topic of particular interest to me as I lecture in Language and Literacy Acquisition and Development at Alphacrucis College.
According to studies by Biemiller, in younger years children develop 860 root word meanings per year. Between the ages of one and seven this is a total of about around 6000 root words. But staggeringly 25% of children by age seven have only developed 4000 root word meanings. So what can we do to assist young children in vocabulary development?
1. Engage in conversation: By the age of four the vocabulary size of a child is largely influenced by the number of words adults speak to them. Words that children are not exposed to they cannot acquire. Parents and teachers need to constantly engage in conversation with young children.
2. Read a variety of books: This will expose children to a rich range of vocabulary to add to the stock of familiar words. Reading also provides opportunity for discussion of new vocabulary in a meaningful context.
3. Teach words in context: Children “fast map” vocabulary when they can associate meaning with the word. Connecting a word to an object or concrete experience is important for recall of vocabulary.
4. Teach tier words: Tier one words are basic words such as chair, dog, sad. These words rarely require instruction for acquisition. Tier two words are high frequency words used by mature language users. For example irrational, diligent and infuriated. Tier three words are infrequently used and limited to particular spheres such as proton and topographic. For pre-school and early infants students focus on tier one words and for later infants and primary focus on tier two words. Younger children need to have a breadth of tier one words before they can grasp more complex vocabulary.
5. Dialogic reading: Once a child is familiar with a book allow them to take the role of the reader and become an active listener. As the listener ask questions, add information and prompt your child as they read. Open-ended questions such as “What is happening on this page?” are best for developing the skills of story telling.
6. Teach multiple meaning: When the context arises, teach multiple meanings for words. Words with two meanings are called homonyms. For example to take a bow or the bow of a ship. This increases vocabulary depth and complexity.
Building vocabulary is critical to reading comprehension, but takes time to develop. However, the gains of time invested in vocabulary have unparalleled gains for children as they progress through school.
