Vocabulary Development

The latest episode of the "Love of Learning" podcast, co-hosted by our director Julia Kallmes and board member Elizabeth Elcombe, discusses how to enrich and expand your child's vocabulary.

Listen to the episode here.

Some Highlights from the Episode:

Why is vocabulary enrichment important?

"There's been a lot of research around how many words children need to have in their vocabulary when they start school, and the big number is 10,000. Children who start kindergarten with 10,000 words in their vocabulary are really on track to be proficient readers. Vocabulary is also linked to comprehension skills later."

How do you respond if a child uses a new word incorrectly?

"I'm really grateful that they're practicing the word! They're hearing it, they're trying it out, and that is something to be celebrated. So number one: don't reprimanded any effort to to use a vocabulary word. Then, restate and model the correct usage of the word. The more they hear it modeled correctly, the more it will become more deeply rooted in their lexicon."

We reference the following resource during the episode: https://www.readingrockets.org/.

Thank you for listening! We welcome questions and comments. Our next episode will cover teaching the alphabet. Stay tuned!