Expanding children’s vocabulary

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By Christine Jenkins

Specialist tutor and freelance educational writer

Give these activities a go and see if you can inspire your children to broaden their vocabulary.

Expanding vocabulary

Why?

From an early age, most children love to learn and use new vocabulary, often delighting in impressing others by including a particular favourite word at every opportunity. As toddlers, children learn new words almost daily, and by the age of three, most children will know between 1000 and 2000 words. But the thirst for acquiring language need not end with the Early Years. Children in Key Stage Two will relish the chance to broaden their vocabulary and use new words, often the longer or more unusual the better!

Moreover, helping children to widen their vocabulary is beneficial to both their reading and their writing. The National Curriculum states:

‘deliberate steps should be taken to increase pupils’ vocabulary’
(NC 2014 English)

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  1. Sarahc1147
    on 24 July 2019

    Vocabulary vision!

    This is a fantastic view of incorporating vocabulary into every day. Some of your suggestions we already do in our school but I'm definitely going to try the others, they sound fab and fun. Thank you!