Tips for Parents | Mistakes to avoid while teaching Vocabulary

The kid who has just got the ability to think and analyze is a curious soul inside! He/she is so curious about things that you as parents might get irritated sometimes. But, that’s not the way ahead. The young mind has the capacity to learn all the teachings and store them for the rest of life. Now, do you prefer to shut them up?

No, right, whenever they see something peculiar and new, they come up with a crazy question. Rather than scolding them, try to provide them with the answer and make them learn something. It can be anything such as colour, object, place, sky, etc. 

This age is the most righteous time to develop certain habits.

Yes, improving vocabulary in kids can be really helpful throughout.

Words empower children to make sense of the world around them 

Developing a wide range of vocabulary in kids is fundamentally important. The stated quote provides the whole concept behind it.

If we look at the greater good, a wide vocabulary helps young minds to put their emotions into words and develops the ability to imagine and wonder. At the same time, it also enhances and boosts up internal cognitive thinking which serves as a benefit in the longer run.

IMPROVED VOCABULARY FOR SCHOOL AND BEYOND

Before moving further, understand that ‘ACADEMICS-DOES NOT HAVE IT ALL’. Students need to study and acquire knowledge beyond their school books. 

Coming to improving vocabulary, strong vocabulary plays a major role in achieving success in school and after. For instance, strong vocab has been correlated with success in universal standardized tests like GRE, SATs, CATs, and so on. 

On a constructive note, it surely helps build confidence. Suppose, while rereading a text, you come across a familiar word, that too, in comparison with, when coming across a word for the very first time. You can mark the difference, right?

5 COMMON MISTAKES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY

You might wonder, ‘What’s so hard about introducing a word and its meaning every day?’ Vocabulary is the easiest thing to imbibe if done appropriately. Out of all the complex ideas that parents try to convey to their children, vocabulary seems like a no-brainer. Turning a healthy routine into a more complex task than it appears to be, seemingly fails to get students to effectively build their knowledge of new words. 

Let’s have a look at five common mistakes:

• Assigning too many words at one time – Vocabulary should be seen as a learning process rather than a homework/burdening process. Your utmost goal should be to make it fun and interactive to learn for a child and not teach him in a haste. Assigning too many words at the same time might put the kid under immense boredom and he/she will eventually run away from the activity.
• Teaching vocabulary words out of context – You don’t not prepare your child to be a master in this skill , so , teaching him words which goes above his/her head and thinking ability is as strenuous as reading chinese at a go.
• Expecting vocab words after a single process – Improving vocabulary is a time-taking process. Your child will take a significant amount to enhance his/her skill. So , stop expecting and start encouraging! For instance , adults don’t cook like ‘Masterchef’s’ in one go . They constantly improve , experiment and learn to get over the art. Vocabulary is just like that.
• Making vocab development a boring, monotonous topic that kids want to avoid – Before starting the process , you have to look for a child’s interest so that he/she enjoys being taught new things. If this development becomes a monotonous and boring work , then sooner or later , your child’s learning ability will fade away.
• Skipping conscious effort to vocab development entirely

TIPS FOR IMPROVING VOCABULARY

• Making conversations a priority via parent – child interactions – When it comes to developing a habit , it feels like a major task. Many kids do not want to read and instead prefer playing outdoors , chit-chatting with friends etc. They learn a lot through hearing. Children’s brain constitute almost 95% of words they hear via their parents. ‘The quality of parent-child interactions plays as one of the biggest factors influencing vocabulary, so it becomes vital to expose your child to new words and talk to them.Thus , conversing with kids can be equally helpful in improving his/her vocabulary. 

• Reading together by not just reading school books but the books that concern your child’s interest – The key to a wide store of vocabulary is the love for reading. Children don’t find books interesting in front of their superheroes or idols. But , it is important to instill the habit by making it a part of routine and encouraging them to read for enjoyment . Go beyond school books and hunt for your child’s interest and find books which relate to them the most . Improving vocabulary is more of a task , so , reading aloud to your child even though he is able to read would really help in revamping the store.

• Playing word games to help learn new words- Language-learning should not appear to be a boring task which your child is doing everyday. Introduce word games such as scrabble to make it more interactive and fun. These fun activities would act as a cherry on the cake in terms of enhancing vocabulary.

• Introducing the word of the day – Introducing word of the day looks like a hectic task . Do you also see this way? But ,it is not. Introducing a word everyday would uplift your kids vocabulary by 365 or 366 every year , and it can be as helpful for the whole family as it is for the child. You could use a calendar / app / dictionary to introduce new words and converse using that the whole day. Just make sure that the child knows the appropriate meaning of that word and should not misinterpret it.

• Writing for pleasure – What do you think writing for pleasure means? Children do not prefer writing sometimes because they can’t find anything of their interest in it and take it as a burden over them. Writing for pleasure does not mean writing for school but to write on any topic which they wish for / interest them . Just see this writing for the sake of writing and nothing else.

Happy learning!