Last time we talked about the importance of reading aloud to your child. Making sure that reading time is fun and enjoyable supports Print Motivation, one of the six early literacy skills identified as necessary for a child to have in order to be a successful reader. Print Motivation is defined as a child’s interest in and enjoyment of books and reading. Children who are not attracted to books will find learning to read much more difficult.
Motivation is critical, but it is not the whole story. Over the next few months, we’ll look at each of the remaining five early literacy skills and talk about why they are important and how you can help support them with your child.
Vocabulary means knowing the names of things, emotions, concepts and ideas. Learning words begins at birth and grows throughout a child’s life. Most children start school knowing between 3,000 and 5, 000 words. Research shows that children who have larger vocabularies are better readers. Knowing many words helps children recognize written words and it helps them to decode and better understand the words they read.
What can you do to increase your child’s vocabulary?
Talk with your child. Research by Dr. Janellen Huttenlocher of the University of Chicago shows that the growth in vocabulary in children under 2 years of age is clearly linked to the extent that their parents talk with them. The more parents talked with their babies and toddlers, the more vocabulary the children had. By the time they were 2 years old, the children whose parents had a high level of speech with them, had a vocabulary five times higher than those children whose parents did not.
What should you talk about? Anything! Talk about what you are doing at the moment or what you are going to do later. Tell stories about when you were growing up or about people your child knows. Think out loud. Explain things. Don’t forget to include concept words (ie: opposites and colors), descriptive words (adjectives and adverbs) and words for different emotions. Your child can’t tell you she is confused or frustrated unless she knows the words to use. The more language your child hears, the more vocabulary she will acquire.
Read to your child. Children are exposed to nine times more vocabulary words through books and reading than through TV or videos. Even the educational ones. The language of books is so much richer in vocabulary than TV! When you read, do not dumb down the words or substitute simpler ones. Instead, explain unfamiliar words so that your child will understand. Use the pictures in the book to help explain. If you are not sure what a word means, model good study techniques and look it up in a dictionary, or call the library. Try and use the new words in your everyday conversation so that your child becomes familiar with them. Remember to include non-fiction and poetry titles in your reading list. The more variety, the more words.
As for those educational TV shows and videos, please use them sparingly. The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that children under the age of two not watch TV at all. And that those over two be limited to one to two hours a day of educational screen media. Your child’s first and best teacher is you and the friends and family she is with on a regular basis. No electronic media can substitute for that.
Published on March 21, 2012.
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