Fun with words

Why is having fun with words important?

You play a significant role in helping a child learn new words. The more words that they know improves their academic and life chances.

If they have a large vocabulary this helps to them to access the information that they see and hear.

For instance, if you talk to your child about an octopus. They have not seen one before or heard the word before. Confusion will kick in and they'll usually switch off and stop listening.

Building your child's vocabulary is simple and fun. You can do this through everyday conversations and interactions. Chat about unfamiliar words and tell them what they mean. Show them pictures or the real things. This helps expand your child’s vocabulary.

Sometimes use long interesting words with your child. They spark their curiosity and leave them wanting to know more. They'll have fun trying to pronounce them too! Think about the long dinosaur names that children become fascinated by.

What do we need?

Everyday household objects such as:

• boxes
• tables
• blankets
• cushions
• pots and pans

What do we do?

Together, build an obstacle course. Use boxes, tables with blankets draped over, cushions, and place mats for steppingstones and so on.

Start by building a short course, then extend it if child needs more physical and verbal challenge.

The rule is that the child will have to listen to your instructions. For example:

• 'sit in the box'
• 'jump over the cushion'
• 'crawl under the table'

Make the instructions as simple or tricky as you like. Give your child two instructions together. Add new objects into the obstacle course to increase their vocabulary. 'Walk around the hippopotamus (toy!)'

Your child can then be the instructor and you can follow their directions.

Where and when?

Inside and outside your home.

What are we learning?

Key words

Names of the objects that you have used.

Position language such as under, over, between and on top of.

Action words such as crawl, jump, run and climb.

Significant language milestones

Children usually speak their first words between the age of ten and fourteen months. Much of their communication at this early stage is gestures and noises.

By eighteen months

Your child's vocabulary will be approximately fifty words or more. Twenty of which they will say with clarity.

Their speech skills will develop faster the more that you:

• talk to them
• sing rhymes
• read books
• introduce them to new words

Your child will mispronounce some words. Don't tell them they have said it wrong. Reply to them by using the correct pronunciation. This is positive modelling, without losing your child's confidence to speak.

Always use the correct words, don't use 'baby' words and shortened words. For instance, 'horsey' for horse or 'brum brum' for car or 'hippo' instead of hippopotamus. This confuses a child and they will only need to unlearn it later.

Generally the first speech sounds a child can pronounce are 'p,b,m,w.' They then move through the rest, not always in this order, but very often they follow this pattern:

• l, r, w, y
• f, th
• s, sh, ch, dz, j
• multi-syllabic words such as 'banana' and 'computer'
• r, j, th, ch, sh
• multisyllabic words such as 'pterodactyl' or 'planetarium'