It has long been known that when parents read and talk to their children at home, using relatively advanced vocabulary, those children have larger vocabularies and better word skills, and enter school knowing more than twice as many words as children who rank in the lowest 25 percent of the class. While disadvantaged and low-income families often have more challenges in providing this support to children, the studies also show that when parents are actively involved in vocabulary and reading practice, those children quickly close the gap in word skills. It’s important to help children learn words and improve their reading abilities, because poor skills in these areas lead to poor performance in all areas of education – and this in turn leads to fewer opportunities in the workplace when the children grow up.

If you’re concerned about your child’s vocabulary, reading skills, and education, here are 15 ways you can help children learn vocabulary:

1. Provide a variety of reading materials to keep children interested in new things.

2. Explain the meaning of a word and give definitions and examples of how it’s used.

3. Ask the child to invent sentences using the word, so that they will remember it.

4. Use flash cards to review words and help memorization.

5. Use new words in daily conversations with children.

6. Play games focused on words, spelling, and pronunciation.

7. Teach groups of related words at one time, such as the names for each part of a flower.

8. Create or buy a word of the day calendar, and practice using that word during the day.

9. Have children read out loud to give them practice with pronunciation.

10. Give the child a vocabulary journal to write down new words.

11. Read books together and talk about the books afterwards.

12. Encourage children to make up stories using new vocabulary words.

13. Use technology and media to give children different tools for vocabulary building.

14. Teach children how to use a dictionary to look up words and meanings.

15. Buy books as gifts and spend time at your local library.

Reference: A. Biemiller, “Vocabulary: needed if more children are to read well.” Reading
Psychology (2003)