Parents you might feel uncertain when it comes to knowing how to improve your child’s vocabulary so here are some helpful tips.
If you have an upper elementary student, grades 3-5, who scored low in this area on your school’s standardized test, you might be asking:
Why is that some kids have a stronger vocabulary than others? Is it too late for my child? What can I do as a parent to help them build a stronger vocabulary?
Queensland teacher librarian of the year Megan Daley says,“In children who have not yet developed a love of story and of books, their vocabulary in both written and oral work in school is often at a much lower level than their reading peers.”
To read more: http://www.essentialkids.com.au/education/school/preschool/the-million-word-gap-the-reason-some-children-have-a-higher-vocabulary-than-others-20190506-h1e5cf#ixzz6Vt9eVFq0
The good news is there are ways you can help your child.
Simple Tips To Improve Your Child’s Vocabulary
- Become a family of readers. Reading is one of the natural ways kids are exposed to rich, meaningful vocabulary. If your child doesn’t like reading, try setting up a reading routine where you and your child read together; your child is never too big to be read to out loud. When you encounter words your child doesn’t know, stop and explain how the word is being used. Then you can ask your child to use the word in a sentence.
2. Start a conversation. Anytime you and your child can have a conversation about a topic, he/she will hear new vocabulary from you. Feel free to use your higher level vocabulary- remembering to stop and explain the words along the way. Besides discussing topics, you can set up “storytelling time. ” This is a way to highlight important vocabulary and/or concepts in a meaningful way.
- Take advantage of technology. Audio books are an excellent way to bring books to life for reluctant readers. Audio books allow your child to hear the correct pronunciation and proper use of new words. The best audio book experience is when your child has a copy of the book to read along. This adds that additional support by not only hearing the vocabulary, but seeing it spelled as well. Additionally, audio books with text support bridges the gap for readers who are at a lower reading level than the book they want to read. The audio book provides your child with the support they need to read books that are not “just right.” I am a big advocate for allowing children to read their choice books as long as the child is supported.
The Importance of Studying Roots, Prefixes and Suffixes
While these simple, everyday tips can help your child’s vocabulary grow, organically, by the time your child reaches middle school some of you might want to incorporate a structured vocabulary program.
The English Language Arts standards specifically call out that children begin to master the Latin and Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes.
What I have found is that this gets a little more complicated for parents and teachers. Many of you, like myself, might be wondering what word list to use and how many words should my child learn a week.
While I am not a big fan of rote memorization, it does have its place, and vocabulary building is one of them. I like the idea presented in Gallagher’s Deeper Reading. He suggests having students memorize the meanings of the most common prefixes, roots, and suffixes in order to be able to attack unfamiliar words skillfully. He calls it the 30-15-10 list (thirty prefixes, fifteen roots, and ten suffixes). However, depending on the author you follow, that “common” list of prefixes, roots and suffixes can be quite suggestive.
The key takeaway is to get your child to start interacting with unknown words- not just skip over them and keep reading. A simple spiral note-book can be used to store their new words.
Remember- building vocabulary is a life-long process and at times can seem arduous, but all good readers know how to chunk words based on the word parts, and you want your child to be able to do this too.
