Developing a Child’s Vocabulary {Five Simple Ways}

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Reading to your child every day is an important habit to form early on in your child’s life. Besides reading, though, even simply talking to your child can go a long way in their growth and development.

The more words a child hears, the broader their vocabulary becomes.

vocabulary

There are several things you can do to encourage your child’s language development. When children hear words, their own spoken vocabulary expands as they start to learn what words mean and represent.

Establish a nightly bedtime story routine.

Reading a few books before bed is a great way to help foster a love of reading and enjoy some quiet alone time with your child. Even newborns love hearing their parents’ voices and enjoy hearing a story.

Talk about your day.

Simply talking to your child throughout the day about what you are doing can increase their exposure to words by thousands. As you grocery shop, ask your kid what kind of cereal you should buy. Even if they are a baby, can’t answer back and you feel silly “talking to yourself,” your child will thank you later.

Use toys and activities.

While your child plays with a ring stacker, simply naming the colors as they stack them or commenting about which ring goes on next helps your child hear about colors, size, and cause and effect.

Go beyond the story.

While reading stories from start to finish is a great step in fostering your child’s language skills, go beyond the text. Ask the child what color certain pictures are, to find an animal on the page or to count how many people.

Pick a variety of books.

Take inventory of your child’s library. Are there board books they can hold and turn the pages themselves early on? Are there more advanced picture books for older kids? Interactive books that allow the child to look for things on the page, trace items, or feel different textures? Are your books diverse when it comes to people of different genders or races?

Reading and talking to your child every day can drastically impact their future development and success in school. Reading also allows your child to experience places, people and activities that they may not get to experience in real life.