Vocabulary

Definitions

Vocabulary refers to the words a child can understand (receptive vocabulary) or express (expressive vocabulary). Development of a good vocabulary is important to language development, as adults we continue learning new words throughout their lives. If a child has a limited vocabulary they may have difficulties in understanding what is being said to them or difficulties in expressing themselves.

Word finding is the ability to retrieve words from your mental ‘dictionary’. Adults experience word finding difficulties when they know a word, it’s on the ‘tip of my tongue’.

Progression

Children continue to develop their vocabulary skills throughout primary school in order to use curriculum key words, give clear descriptions and gain a greater understanding of the relationships between words. By the end of primary school, most children have developed effective skills to learn, store and recall new words. Secondary school and college students continue to develop more advanced skills to meet the vocabulary demands of the curriculum. This enables them to use subject specific vocabulary to communicate effectively within their subject classes, written work and with their peers.

Word retrieval strategies rely on the child/students ability to store both semantic features [meanings] and phonological features [speech sounds] of words. Children and students will always benefit from activities to develop these skills such as playing vocabulary games at home and school. Those who need lots of repetition will benefit from exposure to topic related vocabulary both at the beginning and end of the school term.

Young children will learn vocabulary directly relevant to their life experience and environment. To begin with this will be social greetings e.g. ‘bye-bye’ and mostly nouns i.e. labels for items or significant people in their life. Gradually they will learn labels for actions [verbs] or events and begin to understand and use describing words [adjectives] linked to the way they are feeling e.g ‘tired’ ‘hungry’ ‘thirsty’. In addition young children will learn vocabulary has a grammatical role to play in a sentence i.e. how to use prepositions or pronouns.

Non-urgent advice: Talking tips and strategies

  • Identify key words for a given topic prior to it being taught in the classroom (this can be done by the class teacher, LSA/TA and with the child if appropriate) It is recommended that a manageable amount of words are introduced at one time e.g. 3 – 5 per topic.
  • Find pictures or objects that represent the topic vocabulary where possible.
  • Introduce the key words (with pictures/objects) to the child before they are taught in the classroom and recap these as often as possible
  • Talk about each word in turn (during different sessions if possible). Discuss the semantic features (relating to the meaning of the word) and phonological features (relating to the sounds in the word) as follows: “typhoon; an extreme wind or storm [category: Weather]” “typhoon has 2 syllables and rhymes with “cocoon”.
  • Talk to your child’s school about the topics they will be covering throughout the term
  • When the child is learning a new word, give the child plenty of opportunities to hear it (and see what it refers to) in a range of different situations, before you assume they have fully understood the word (this could include acting out new verbs if appropriate)

General resources

Resources by age group

0-12 months

1-2 Years

2-3 Years

3-4 Years

4-5 Years (Reception)

5-7 Years (year 1-2)

7-9 Years (year 3-4)

9-11 years (years 5-6)

11-14 Years (years 7-9)

14+ Years (year 10+)

Page last reviewed: 29 August, 2021