Building Your Child’s Vocabulary

Parents and caregivers play a crucial role in fostering a child’s vocabulary and comprehension skills. Supporting and encouraging language development is critical in promoting a love for learning. Having a strong vocabulary plays an essential part in your child’s future academic success.  

 To effectively increase your child’s vocabulary, focus on creating a language-rich environment through consistent reading, engaging conversations, and role-play activities, (like having toy characters talk to one another). Reading aloud, playing word games, and storytelling exposes children to a wider range of words and contexts, fostering a love for language.  

 In my previous article,”Reading Aloud” I explain the benefits of reading aloud to your child: 

 “Children are learning at an incredible pace these first few years. They learn balance and control over their own body. They learn at least an entire language. In multilingual homes they’ll learn two languages as early as they are learning to form words. It’s up to us as parents how well they understand and how wide their vocabulary will be. To quote pediatrician Sarah Klein, MD; “Reading to babies and young children is so important. It provides the building blocks for language. It gives them the tools for forming lifelong social and emotional skills.“  Reading is fundamental to all other learning. A 2019 research study shows that consistently reading, “improves brain connectivity. It increases vocabulary and comprehension. It empowers you to empathize with other people.” 

 There are other points top consider and implement as well, keeping in mind the use of age-appropriate words and general milestones to be aware of. 

• By age 2, a child should be speaking around 50-100 words 

• By age 3, your child should understand and use approximately 200-300 words 

• By age 4, their vocabulary should be expanding to the 1,000-1,500 word range 

• By age 5, most children have developed a functional vocabulary of 2,000-2,500 words 

• Study results have determined that children add approximately 1000-2000 words per year 

• According to multiple studies, the “average” adult has a vocabulary of approximately 40,000 words.  

Parents and caregivers have significant influence in cultivating a robust and ever-expanding vocabulary in their child’s communication, setting them up for future success in school and beyond. 

1. Reading Together: Choose age-appropriate books with rich vocabulary and engage your child by asking questions about the story, characters, and new words. Stopping to discuss interesting and/or complex concepts makes reading time more enjoyable. Practice interactive reading.


• What is Interactive Reading? When you read interactively with children, you encourage them to participate in talking about what is happening in the book.  Make reading a conversation by discussing the plot, characters, and new words, encouraging predictions and questions as you go. 
 

• Choose ‘vocabulary-rich’ books. Select books known for their varied and challenging language, like classic literature or award-winning children’s books. 
 

2. Engaging in Conversation:

• Engage Frequently. When you engage in daily conversations with your child, ask open-ended questions and encourage them to explain their thoughts and experiences. 
 

• Model a ‘vocabulary-rich’ language environment.  Use a variety of words in your own speech, demonstrating how different words can be used to express the same idea. 
 

• Introduce new words contextually. When you use an unfamiliar word, explain the meaning and provide examples of how it can be used in different situations. You will be surprised how quickly your child will pick it up and fit it into conversations. Kids love learning something new.
 

3. Playful Learning:

• Word Games. Play word games as a family, or one-on-one with your child. Games like Scrabble, Boggle, or simple “I Spy” games make learning fun and interactive. Suggest making some snacks together and inviting over a couple of their friends to play them.
 

• Storytelling. Create a comfortable and accepting environment that encourages your child to create and tell their own stories. Encourage using new vocabulary and wildly creative imagination. 
 

• Try a Vocabulary Journal &/or Contest. Suggest your child keep a journal, writing down new words they encounter, along with their definitions and examples. If there are siblings in the house, make it fun, see who has the most at the end of the week, month and/or year. At the end of the year, vote on the most unique, most complex, silliest, most outrageous, hardest to spell, etc… a ‘something for everyone contest ‘so everyone wins at least one vote.
 

4. Additional Tips:

• Most importantly, make it fun. Turn vocabulary building into a joyful experience by using games, stories, contests, and real-life examples. 
 

• Most importantly,  be a role model! Use rich and varied language in your own conversations and interactions, (even if you have to get yourself a ‘word of the day’ calendar to remind you!
 

By implementing a few of these – and strategies of your own, you can transform reading aloud into a powerful tool for vocabulary development and a lifelong love of reading for your child.