As your child continues with their schooling journey, one of the most important things you can do as a parent is engage them in activities that will grow their minds. Having a good vocabulary will improve your child’s speaking, reading, writing and understanding of phonics, so it can be crucial to implement some vocabulary improvement strategies.
With all this in mind, you may be wondering, what methods can you use to help to improve your child’s vocabulary?
We’ll be diving into several key strategies for vocabulary improvement that’ll get your child engaging in rigorous discussion. So, let’s get started!
为什么您的孩子需要一个良好的词汇量，如何改善它？
Method #1: Monkey See, Monkey Do
Method #2: Encourage Reading (and lots of it)
Method #3: Use Real-World Activities
Method #4: Engage in Imaginative Play
Method #5: Promote Educational TV Shows
为什么您的孩子需要一个良好的词汇量，如何改善它？
Though children who are skilled in language-based thinking are more likely to adopt new words with ease,vocabulary largely comes down to our environment. Early and frequent exposure to words can greatly sharpen linguistic knowledge.
Having a broad vocabulary hasmany benefits. In the short-term,it improves our reading comprehension and allows us to grasp concepts.It alsoassists us in clearly communicating ideaswith a plethora of word options.
Vocab is also important for language development.如果您的孩子在年轻的时候接触过很多单词，他们将能够在自己的演讲和思考中使用它们。
If we look at longer-term implications,a strong vocabulary is suggested by researchers to predict andenhance occupational success.
It’s clear that vocab is important, so how will we improve it in our children?
通过这篇文章，我们将通过两种方式谈论词汇的锐化。第一的，children need exposure to new words.This may come from listening to their grandparents, books, or TV and general experience.然后，孩子需要重复和背景来理解这些词。
You will notice thatthe improvement strategies we talk about combine these two elements,which will optimise your child’s chance to have a full vocabulary. The point isn’t to produce a living dictionary — instead,you want your child to be able to communicate effectively and have great language skills!
Method #1: Monkey See, Monkey Do
You’ve heard it before.Don’t set a bad example when your children are around — there’s probably many other things you’ve been told not to do near your kids.如果我们翻转这个怎么办？
Children通过复制父母学习。Though this can be daunting, it’s also a really important and exciting thing for development! You have an opportunity to aid your child in their language learning.
Anecdotally,我还记得我了解“死后”ant after I heard my dad use it on the phone when I was about 8.这是一个抽象的记忆，但它表明学习语言棒。
There’s a good chance you have a sharp vocabulary if you’re reading this article. It’s time to start using it!
Implementing words into conversations that are outside your child’s knowledge can help them learn new things.You may find they pick up words and use them without directly knowing what they mean, having learnt through association.
Even as adults we often do this. Words like ‘love’ or ‘hope’, which we can’t concretely define, are known asprimitive words.As children develop, they will also be able to开始将这些单词纳入更广泛的concepts.
Some practical ways you can expose your child to new words through speaking are:
- 使用单词你的孩子not know, but that are of an accessible level, in conversations with them
- Allowing your child to hear conversations with other adults
- 将您的孩子暴露于可能学习新单词的地区（咖啡店，杂货店的对话等）
Method #2: Encourage Reading (and lots of it)
For adults and children alike,one of the best ways to increase our vocabulary is through reading.Specifically, independent reading (or reading that we actually want to do, in our own time), seems to be most effective. When we read like this,we are readily exposed to new words and can figure out their meaning based on context.
There are several ways you can help your child to choose texts that maximise vocabulary:
- Help your child read many different genres (each will bring different sets of words to explore)
- Suggest they read a variety of authors
- Encourage your child to write down words they don’t know
It’s also important that your children are reading books within their ability.Anything too easy, or too hard, will not see the same benefits.
五指规则is a great way to deduce this.Before your child starts a book, get them to turn to a random page and read it to you. Then, hold up a finger for every word they don’t know.
这是一个基本指南:
- 0-1 Fingers:probably too easy
- 2:Your child will likely be challenged and learn new words
- 3:Your child may need some help, but this book could still be a good choice for learning!
- 4:This book is probably too hard for your child to read on their own, so they should choose a different book. If they are reading with you, this may work!
- 5:This book is likely too advanced. Pick a different one.
鼓励您的孩子继续阅读并向您寻求帮助，您将走上正确的道路！
Method #3: Use Real-World Activities
Many children learn best through tactility (there’smany benefitsto this outside of language learning). Real-world experiences, like a trip to the zoo, or simply to the park, can be an opportunity to expand your child’s vocabulary.
This is effective, becausean expansion of knowledge and understanding of the worldrapidly grows early literacy skills.它为您的孩子的背景提供了新的单词，方式和推断意义。
当进行教育旅行时，您可以采取一些措施来帮助您的孩子：
- 谈论您的孩子在看到什么。Engage in meaningful conversation about what is around them.Repetition of words是学习的重要因素。
- Encourage your child to narrate what they are seeing or how they are feeling.You can suggest words that describe this new environment.
Remember,拥有良好的词汇量与拥有字典知识一样有效地使用单词也是如此。This vocabulary improvement strategy of creating new, exciting contexts for your children to explore can help them place words and increase their language skills.
Method #4: Engage in Imaginative Play
通过与您及其同龄人一起玩，您的孩子自然会被介绍给新的概念和言语以探索。就像我们讨论过的一些以前的词汇改进策略一样，imaginative play can introduce your child to varied contexts, where they will pick up words and their meaning by deduction.
Whether you’re dressed up as fairies, diving underwater, or making art, this is a creative way to introduce your child to words they may not already know.
You can alsouse games to very intentionally introduce news words.One example is ‘Picky先生’木偶. Using any puppet of your choosing, tell your child thatthe puppet only likes words of a certain letter (e.g. ‘C’).
This will help your child to think of the words they know and use them effectively. For older children, you can encourage them to put words in a sentence or write it down.
Method #5: Promote Educational TV Shows
Get ready for a shocking statistic. Most children in Australia are spendingwell over two hours on screens each day.Crazy, right?
首先，我们必须在教育内容和一般电视观看之间进行区分。孩子们观看过多的电视和学习比同龄人更慢的孩子之间存在相关性。然而，further study has shown that suchspeech delay can be linked to watching violent, or non-educational content.
Though we may see screen time as an inherently negative thing for kids,there are some language benefits to TV.When children watch educational shows, they are able to acquire language skills and new words.
The study we just talked about suggests thatchildren who watch educational shows aren’t seeing the same issues in speech delay.Young children who watched shows like Arthur, Blue’s Clues, Dragon Tales, or Dora the Explorer had better vocabularies at 30 months of age than their peers.
Okay, what does all this science mean for your child? In short, it meanswatching good TV can grow their vocabulary!
一些成长词汇的好节目是：
- 艺术爆炸
- Behind the News
- Mikki vs The World
- Play School
- The Wacky Word Show
- 声音之家
- What’s for Dinner?
- Tales from Around the World
Generally speaking,ABC Kids is a pretty solid bet for primary school students.You can also ask friends or look around on Facebook for ideas!
Shows like this不仅增加了孩子的知识，而且提供了可以在不同背景下说话的成人声音并提供更多的知识。
There you have it!
Growing and learning ways to improve your child’s vocabulary is a slow but steady process. The exciting thing is,language is a skill that your child can acquire and flourish in!
Keep working with your child to find what suits them best.Expose them to many different situations and keep using varied words!Hopefully, you will see them thrive.
If you’re on the look out for some spelling worksheets to help with their vocabulary, we’ve got some here that you can check out:
Year 1|Year 2|Year 3|Year 4|Year 5|Year 7
Looking for some extra help for your child with how to improve their vocabulary?
We have an incredible team of tutors and mentors who can assist with implementing vocabulary improvement strategies!
We offer tutoring and mentoring for students in Years K-12 in a variety of subjects, with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at our state of the art campus in Hornsby or the Hills!
We’ve supported over8,000 students over the last 11 years, and on average our students score mark improvements of over 20%!
要了解更多，并从鼓舞人心的导师和导师开始今天取得联系or give us a ring on1300 267 888!
Lucinda Garbutt-Younghopes to one day be writing for a big-shot newspaper… or maybe just for a friendly magazine in the arts sector. Right now, she is enjoying studying a Bachelor of Public Communication (Public Relations and Journalism) at UTS while she writes on the side. She also loves making coffees for people in her job as a barista, and loves nothing more than a sun shower.
