Does the number of words a toddler say matter in the end?

Yes, it does!

Studies show that the size of a child’s vocabulary links directly to their ability to read, think, and learn, and later school achievement.

Like a house, the brain is also built on a strong foundation. According to research, children’s brain cells form more robust and more complex connections (synapses) as they grow and develop. The quality of experiences in your child’s first few years of life shapes their brain development.

However, schools are not the only places to learn, and teachers are not the only people with the mandate to teach. Remember, home is where children learn their first words. Therefore, as a parent, your active involvement in your child’s vocabulary acquisition is very significant.

So, what strategies will you adopt to boost your child’s vocabulary?

Keep reading to find out!

1. Hold Long, Two-Way Conversations With Your Child Often

The more kids involve themselves in interactive conversations, the more they learn oral language and vocabulary. Therefore, try to create quality time to talk to your child encouraging them to articulate their thoughts and feelings.

Monologue conversations will never do your child any good. Try to get them to explain everyday experiences and how they feel about them. You can engage with your child in some of the following ways:

• Ask them open-ended questions like how was school today?
• Ask for their opinion. For example, I think it’s about to rain. What should we do?
• Discuss the day’s events with them.
• Read aloud to them and prompt them to finish some sentences for you.

Again, one-time conversations are never enough. Your child needs to encounter the new vocabulary more than once for it to be embedded into their long-term memory. With that said, you should constantly talk to your child to foster learning.

2. Encourage Them To Read Books and Reading Materials

If billionaires wanted to share their secret to success with a few people globally, they would put that information in books.

Do you know why? Most people don’t read books!

Yes, we are in the digital era. But books are still the best sources of knowledge. Children can learn a broad range of words that we use to converse daily from books.

What’s more, there is plenty of reading material around us that can be used to learn new words. For instance, your child can learn the word ‘fuel’ from a car handbook, ‘ingredient’ from a cereal packet, and ‘cheerleader’ from a sports magazine.

3. Involve Your Child

Gone are the days of gender inequality in daily activities. Do women always have to cook? Or do men have to do the ‘hard’ stuff like carpentry and mechanics?

Despite your child’s gender, try to involve them in all indoor and outdoor activities.

If your child assists you in the kitchen, they will get familiar with vocabulary like measure, bake, steam, etc. In the garden, they will learn about weeding, pruning, watering, and more. While doing laundry, they will understand terms like rinsing, washing powder, laundry basket, machine wash, etc.

A leisurely walk around the neighborhood can also help your child get familiar with new words. For example, you can discuss different modes of transport based on which vehicles pass by.

4. Use Synonyms and Homonyms

One word can have different meanings or the same meaning as another one. You can always introduce your child to new and fancier terms to boost their understanding of what others say, to articulate and write more engagingly.

Besides, do not always pick the easy words to communicate with your child. Expose them to more difficult ones to sharpen their brain. For instance, you can use the words ‘content’ or ‘jolly’ in place of ‘happy’.

5. Explain Away

For each word you mention to your child for the first time, be sure to provide a detailed description of its meaning. And that doesn’t mean you should use a dictionary all the time.

No!

Definitions from dictionaries may include unfamiliar words, which may complicate things even further.

So instead, maximize on using contextual clues and examples. You can ask your child to think of anyone in the family, friends, or neighbours who can be associated with a particular word. For example, Uncle Rahul may match the description of a doctor, or a specific family may suit the word ‘fortunate.’

Instead of verbal explanations, you can also visualize the words on paper through drawings. For example, you can represent the word reluctant by sketching a person standing at the edge of the pool with only one toe in the water.

Hope you found some of these suggestions useful! However, be sure not to be too hard on your child or compare them to other children. Learning new words comes naturally and at a different pace for every child.

The post 5 Fun Ways to Boost Your Child’s Vocabulary appeared first on BookGuru.

Unfortunately, it’s not always obvious, but it is true.

We all know that it is ‘good’ to read. Most of us want our kids to have good reading habits. But how many of us believe that reading is ‘critical’ to our child’s academic and future success? Yes, reading for pleasure has so far been an unlikely predictor of future success.

However, studies across the globe are confirming that reading has a strong impact on student development. E.g. Timothy Bates and Stuart Ritchie, in their 50 years long research, concluded that children with higher reading and math skills end up having higher incomes. Children who read from a young age are far more likely to succeed at school and later, in the workplace.

Listed below are 5 definitive benefits of reading for all kids –

1. Higher self esteem

Kids who read well are also more knowledgeable and likely to be better at writing. This gives them more confidence in talking to their peers, answering in class and participating in classroom discussions.

2. Better concentration

Reading requires a higher level of focus and concentration. It doesn’t matter whether a child is reading about actual dinosaurs or about Tom Fletcher’s Chritmasaurus. When he/she focuses on one topic for an extended period of time, it leads to better concentration in other areas as well.

3. Stronger memory skills

Reading strengthens memory over a period of time. Even in books for young readers, one has to remember the characters, settings and overall plot. All this happens subtly while the child is enjoying the story.

4. Improved critical & analytical thinking

Mystery novels to books on bizarre facts and all books in between – encourage kids to think about what they are reading. When kids question, analyze and predict based on what they are reading, it improves their critical and analytical thinking skills.

5. Expanded vocabulary

Over time, words that kids read in books will definitely make their way into their conversations. Reading words in context of the sentence, helps organically improve vocabulary even if kids aren’t looking up the words in the dictionary.

Reading for pleasure and reading with pleasure are both equally important. Such readers are called engaged readers. They are the ones who benefit the most from their reading efforts.

At BookGuru, we are committed to ensuring that all our readers grow into engaged readers.

We add new books to the library every week. We pick the very best books across genres, including award winning books from around the globe. These books are sure to foster curiosity, imagination, language skills and vocabulary.

Additionally, at BookGuru, not only do we ensure that the books your child is reading at his/her reading level, but we also monitor (very closely!) how well your child has understood each book read. All this whilst always focusing on getting your child excited about reading!

We look forward to hearing from you.

The post 5 Reasons Why Reading is so Importrant for Academic Success appeared first on BookGuru.