A kick-start to Vocabulary Development

When children are young, their mind is like a sponge that soaks in different things from the environment. It is very important for them to hear the words for the things that are all around them. Right from the beginning, talk as much as you can to your children. Take them with you to the grocery store, marketplace, bank, garden, library, and all the other places you can think of! Talk to them about what you are seeing and what is happening even if you feel it’s not their time to learn about these things or it would be too hard or irrelevant for them. For example, when you are walking through a garden, talk to them about different flowers, parts of a plant, what a plant needs, insects you might spot, the gardener and his tools and so on and so forth. By doing so you can be assured that you have made a good start towards your child’s vocabulary development.

Author Study

I hope you read to your children on a daily basis, and I hope the parents of older children (6 to 8years olds) also read ‘with’ them on a regular basis even though the children can read by themselves at this age.

Try reading a few books by the same author for a few days at a stretch. In this way children not only get familiar with the names of the authors but also start paying attention to the author’s writing style. After you have read a few books of a chosen author, read to them a little about the author. They will be amazed to know that authors are real life people with their own interests and unique writing style. Also ask them to draw similarities and differences between books of the same author and different authors’ different writing styles.

Eric Carle

Kevin Henkes

Leo Lionni

Some celebrated authors that you can start with are Eric Carle, Kevin Henkes, Leo Lionni, Julia Donaldson, Roger Hargreaves and Robert Munsch. Many of them have their own website and many of their books are available as audio books online. Just type in the name of the book and the author in any search engine and you will come across many of them. Some websites even let you communicate with the authors. Recently my class wrote to Robert Munsch and much to their amazement he replied! Our children were ecstatic and they love to read his books even more now as they have a real life connect, a real experience to associate him with!

Just a little background of the author can multiply children’s interest in literature ten-fold!

Your Child’s First Books

Don’t be in a hurry to discard your child’s first books. These books can be used as an important tool to help her learn to read. Because you read these books several times to her and they are full of pictures that go with specific words and simple sentences, she will slowly start putting two and two together and figuring out the sounds of the letters that make the words. She will recognize the letters that she has probably begun learning in her play school and will also learn the functionality of learning the alphabet. The familiar and predictable text of the books will aid her to practice reading the words on her own, which in turn will help build her confidence and risk-taking ability to read unfamiliar and complex words. As you read trace the words with your finger so that she can add more words to her sight words bank. Keep these books accessible to her, once you have read a book make sure you keep it out for at least a couple of days.