Vocabulary
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Children who:
- regularly use non-specific language (‘thingy, whatsit, you know’) in speaking and writing
- hesitate in contributing a response
- have difficulties understanding what is asked of them
- substitute words of similar sound
- substitute words of similar meaning
- appear to forget new vocabulary
- rarely participate in class discussions
MAY be experiencing problems with vocabulary.
Children who are having difficulties with vocabulary will benefit from a structured approach to TEACH them the skills to effectively organise, store and retrieve new words.
How We Learn and Remember Words
Learning vocabulary is a lifelong experience. In order to effectively process, store and retrieve words, we need to be able to use two sorts of information: semantic and phonological. Both are equally important and interdependent and need to be encouraged in children who are developing language.
Semantic
(According to meaning)
- Category
- Function
- Associations
- Similarities
e.g. helmet
- Category: clothes
- Function: protects your head
- Associations: motorbike, gloves, building site
- Similarities: hat, cap, top hat,hood
- When you might use it: dangerous activities
Phonological
(According to the sound structure of the word)
- Number of syllables
- Rhyme
- Initial sound
- Other sounds in the word
e.g. helmet
- Syllable: two
- Rhyme: pelmet
- Initial sound: ‘h’
- Final sound: ‘t’
- Other sounds in word: e/l/m/uh
The help that you would offer will depend upon the reason a child is having difficulty with vocabulary. There are a number of reasons why a child might have difficulty with learning words:
