Importance of Vocabulary

An average person draws words from a bank of about 3000 words in his daily conversations though he knows about 20,000 words. Vocabulary is about using language in a way that helps you to express your ideas more richly. Expressing something as big or small is fine. But also using terms like wide, narrow, short, high, tiny, and gigantic help in providing a deeper understanding.

Between the ages 18 and 36 months, language growth occurs very quickly. Children pick up words from conversations others have with them and around them. To help boost their vocabulary, parents should read stories to their children. Exposing them to printed letters and pictures in storybooks fuels their natural curiosity and responsiveness.

Researches show that children who start school with smaller vocabularies, fewer experiences with hearing stories and looking at storybooks face significant problems in learning to read and write. Hence, it is important to boost their language.

Vocabulary knowledge needs to be both deep and wide. Children need to understand different words that have the same meaning but are used specifically in sentences. They should be made familiar with words that have multiple meanings. For example, the use of the word ‘ring’. Ring is what you wear on your finger; you ring the doorbell; wrestlers fight in a ring; the word ‘wring’ that sounds similar to ‘ring’ but is absolutely different in meaning.

It is essential for parents to have more conversations with their children in order to help children grasp the use of different words and to widen their vocabulary.

Content: http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=8100

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