A child sees a puddle on the ground from a recent rain.  How many words that child can use to tell you about what she sees depends on how rich her language environment has been to that point.  Will she tell you about the bug she sees trying to swim across that puddle or the clouds she sees reflected in it?  Will she tell you about how the water feels or what it sounds like when she walks in it?  Will she make up a story?  If she is from a language rich environment, she may have thousands of words to choose from – words that help her be creative in her thoughts and speech.

Summertime is a perfect time to immerse your child in a language rich environment.  Children need to not only listen to, but to speak words to be able to add them to their own treasure trove of vocabulary.   Using lots of words with young children, reading to them, telling stories, and just explaining what’s happening in their world gives kids lots of exposure to words.   Give older kids lots of experiences and talk about them.  Encourage reading, putting on plays, storytelling.  Any activity they do is a potential vocabulary builder.  By age three you can ask your kids how they feel about something and they’ll have something to say!   Give kids the words to identify how they feel, “I know you feel angry.” will help them say it for themselves.

Children have creative, active minds – help them grow with a richness of words. 

 
How do you help your child learn new words?

Dr. Dave