Interaction and communication are inevitable in everyone’s life, that’s why improving your child’s vocabulary is important to their social and intellectual well-being. Parents and guardians have a significant role to play in the process of helping children learn new words and grammar. Helping your kid improve on their vocabulary goes beyond just helping them speak good English, but also communication effectively and having a good command of the English language. 

If you want your kids to speak well, you have to start investing in them now. Here are some practical methods to improve the vocabulary of your child. Who knows, that little child could be the Wole Soyinka of tomorrow.

Talk to your kids often – When parents communicate effectively with their kids and have an open line of conversation with them, it makes room for bonding and helps build their vocabulary and communication skills. Parents ought to talk to their kids notwithstanding if they understand some of their spoken words or not. Initiate conversations, Listen to their opinions, ask them questions and pay attention to every little detail. In so doing, you become familiar with the array of words your kids are exposed to, and the strength of their vocabulary.

Games– there are quite a number of educative cames that will help your children’s vocabulary. Everyone is familiar with scrabble; Scrabble is a very good example. Such games can be found in the store, online or even In libraries. Get them educative games that will help them build their vocabulary.

Speak with your words – Talk to your kids like you would talk to your friends, sometimes use a more advanced word, for instance, instead of saying ‘happy ‘ use the word ‘elated’ or ‘excited ‘. When they ask for meaning of words from you, give them simple meanings using examples from what they can see or do everyday. Make learning of new words fun for them. 

Correct in Love- it’s highly important for parents to understand that speaking good vocabulary does not happen in a wink, kids need to grow with the words as they apply them to their daily living. Have them repeat new words and you can intentionally include them in conversations with them. For example, they had just learnt the word ‘luggage ‘ initiate conversations that luggage would fit into regularly with them. You should also understand that kids have different assimilation rates, kids grow and improve at their own pace, rather than scream or scold your child when he/she says makes mistakes. correct them in love, with a bit of patience and effort they will get it right. 

Books – if your child naturally has a passion for books, that’s a good sign, for others who are just indifferent about reading books, you can expose them today to interesting books about a different subject matter that will build their vocabulary. Read with your kids and sometimes read aloud to their hearing, it helps them learn faster. Let kids choose to read from their areas of interest sometimes, but as they grow, teach them the advantage of reading from a broad subject topic. Dictionaries are also books, there are children friendly dictionaries that can help kids learn new words, while young teenagers with access to mobile phones can go higher by downloading a dictionary application on their phones. Parents can also encourage kids to challenge themselves to learn a certain number of words weekly, they will marvel at how much they are be able to learn as they grow.