A child’s vocabulary – their knowledge of letters, sounds and meanings of words is strongly associated with their level of reading as they grow. It is very important for parents to understand the relationship a child has with words in order to promote strong literacy skills.
When children hear new words and learn how to to pronounce those words, they can apply meaning. The link between the spoken word, their letters and sounds allow children to form an expectation about what the written word will look like. This means that children who are read too and communicated with often will process orally familiar words more quickly when they read them for the first time.
While children may be learning words at school, parents can make daily deposits into a child’s “Word Account” – allowing them to increase their word bank. When speaking or reading with them pay attention to unfamiliar words, ask if they have heard the word before and take the opportunity to have a dialogue about that word and what it means. Help them practice pronouncing the words and associating the different sounds with letters. This is a very important step in helping children build a repertoire of words with pronunciations and meanings. Building a rich and diverse word bank is vital to supporting a child’s literacy development.
Mala Mahabir,
Executive Director,
The Pickering Reading Circle