When children first begin to speak, they learn new words from listening to people talking to them and around them. Parents are encouraged to read to their children every day, to increase the number of words their children are exposed to, and to help them develop their reading and word identification skills. Studies around the world have shown that children whose parents (or other caretakers) read to them show, in general, measurable improvements in their working vocabulary and communication skills.

This process doesn’t have to end with childhood. One of the best ways you can improve your own vocabulary is to read as much as you can, choosing your reading materials from a wide range of topics.

Read About Things That Interest You

Reading should be fun, even if it’s reading for a school or work project. If you’re interested in sports, look for biographies of famous athletes, or books on the history of a sport. Mixing fiction and non-fiction will give you the largest selection of new words, and will help keep your interest in the topic. When you come across a word that’s new to you:

• write it down
• look it up
• create two new sentences using the word

Practice the words you’ve learned several times to help you remember them. Make a note of any new words you’ve learned that appear in more than one book; these words are important ones to learn and use so that you can speak knowledgeably about the topic.

Read About Things You Didn’t Know Would Interest You

Have you ever been reading a book or newspaper, a magazine or on-line article, and said to yourself, “Hey – that’s interesting; I didn’t know that before”? When you find your interest piqued by something, follow up on it. You’ll be led into a new area of research and publications which will provide you with even more new vocabulary. The more varied your vocabulary, the better able you’ll be to express yourself. In addition, learning one new word will often give you clues to the meaning of other new words that might be related (for example, they might share a root or a suffix) and that will increase your ability to accumulate and assimilate these new words into your working vocabulary.

Keep reading throughout your life, and you’ll never run out of things to say!

For more information, see the publication “Mother-Child Bookreading in Low-Income Families: Correlates and Outcomes”