Vocabulary development in children

Tags: Development, Speech development
The development of a child’s speech is an important area of preschool and school education. And one of the criteria for success is a rich vocabulary (the number of words that a child can use during communication).

To avoid delayed speech development, it is necessary to enrich the baby’s vocabulary from the first year of life. Classes aimed at expanding and activating the vocabulary should be conducted not occasionally, but daily. Only with regular and systematic vocabulary work will you be able to raise an erudite and intellectually developed child.

Features of children's dictionary by year

1–3 years

A one-year-old baby knows and can use 5–9 one- or two-syllable words (“give”, “ma-ma”, “pa-pa”, “la-la”). In the next 2 years, his vocabulary quickly expands due to the words that his parents use in everyday communication, and reaches 800–1000 lexical units.

Thematic categories that a child aged 1–3 years operates with:

names of family members, names of pets;
names of toys, surrounding household items (dishes, furniture, food);
names of 5–10 animals and plants;
names of seasons and weather phenomena (“rain”, “snow”, “sun”).

The basis of a three-year-old's vocabulary is nouns with specific meanings and verbs. Adjectives and adverbs are not used at this age: the child cannot use words to describe an object or his emotional state.

4–5 years

During this period, a qualitative leap occurs: the child’s vocabulary is enriched with new thematic groups and reaches a volume of 1900–2200 words.

New thematic categories in a child’s dictionary at 4–5 years old:

emotional experiences, feelings and emotions (“cheerful”, “angry”, “sad”, “offended”);
qualitative characteristics of objects (“big”, “green”, “cold”);
diminutive forms (“mommy”, “brother”);
names of baby animals (“kitten”, “duckling”).

At 5 years old, a child learns the basics of word formation. Now he can create groups of words with the same root using prefixes and suffixes: “water” - “water”, “goose” - “gosling”, “table” - “table”. At the same time, he realizes not only the relatedness of such lexical units, but also their differences (“a goose is an adult bird, and a gosling is a baby”).

5–7 years

The child’s vocabulary increases approximately 2 times: now its volume is about 3000–4000 words.

Thematic groups that a child aged 5–7 years should use:

time intervals (“minute”, “hour”, “year”), days of the week, months and seasons;
spatial concepts (“top”, “bottom”, “left”, “right”);
numerals (from 1 to 10, sometimes up to 100);
first and last names of parents, close relatives, famous writers;
some social science terms (“country”, “Motherland”, “people”, “labor”, “Russia”), names of city attractions and holidays (“New Year”, “Birthday”, “Christmas”);
professions and sports, colors and shades, parts of the human body, natural phenomena;
household items (clothing, shoes, hats, toys, dishes, furniture, hygiene products), vehicles (water, land, air);
domestic and wild animals, plants, fruits, berries, vegetables, flowers;
words with a general meaning (“animals”, “transport”, “dishes”);
emotional-evaluative words with the meaning of a person’s feelings and experiences.

Before enrolling a child in first grade, almost all schools conduct testing, which includes an assessment of the child’s speech development. That is why it is so important to identify gaps in the knowledge of a future first-grader in advance and eliminate them in a timely manner.

Formation of vocabulary is an important means of developing children's speech

Perhaps the most difficult thing in the development of speech in preschoolers is the need to form the child’s vocabulary in a timely manner. Parents do not need to go into all the intricacies of the work of specialists who use a special technique for this purpose. In raising their baby, they need to know the main thing: the formation of a child’s vocabulary goes in two directions. This is his quantitative growth and assimilation of the meaning of words.

Quantitative growth

The increase in quantity occurs due to the constant accumulation of words, adding new ones to existing words. It is noted that the enrichment of vocabulary largely depends on the environment in which the child lives and his upbringing.

If parents take their child’s development seriously, then by the end of the first year his vocabulary will accumulate up to 10-12 words. Let their small number not upset parents, because these are words that the baby actively uses. There is also a passive dictionary, that is, speech understanding. The baby understands more words than he speaks. That’s why you need to talk to him as much as possible in order to give him the opportunity to master a large stock of passive vocabulary.
In the second year of life, the accumulation of an active vocabulary proceeds quite rapidly; by the time a child enters early childhood, he has 300-400 words in his vocabulary, and by the age of three – 1,500. According to experts, it is in early childhood that the largest increase in words in a child’s vocabulary occurs.
At four years old the vocabulary is 1900.
By 5 years ‒ 2000-2500.
Seven-year-old children have up to 4,000 words in their dictionaries.

Learning the meaning of words

When mastering the meaning of words, it is noted that the vocabulary of preschool children increases due to nouns and verbs, since they are closest in meaning to children. After all, the study of the world around us occurs through the names of objects and actions with them.

The accumulation of adjectives is much more difficult. It must be remembered that this feature of improving children's vocabulary depends on upbringing, the behavior of surrounding adults and the mental characteristics of the preschool child.
If adults are not concerned about the quality of a preschooler’s speech, and there is no familiarity with color, shape, smell, material, or the purpose of objects, then learning adjectives is more difficult.
Difficulties also arise from the fact that the adjective refers to an abstract part of speech and is quite difficult for children to perceive. The speech of adults, rich in epithets and comparisons, becomes an example to follow.

Ways to develop vocabulary

There is a generally accepted formula that describes the mechanism for replenishing a child’s vocabulary:

the child hears the word;
understands its meaning;
remembers the word (sends it to the passive vocabulary);
learns to use it in speech (translates it into active vocabulary).

It is on this universal formula that exercises and activities should be built to help increase the baby’s vocabulary. If even one link is missing, the necessary word will not become part of the child's vocabulary.

What to do if a child knows words, but does not use them in conversation?

Much attention should also be paid to how often the child uses certain words in conversation. The technique reveals such a concept as a “dead word” - not activated, found only in the passive dictionary of a preschooler. It is not used for certain reasons: the preschooler does not understand the meaning of the word or is not involved in the scope of its use. It is important for parents to know what passive vocabulary their child knows in order to translate “dead words” into an active vocabulary. If an adult is faced with such a problem, then he should know:

For a preschooler, it is important to explain each new word: its meaning, use in a certain situation, expressive (emotional) connotation. Then the adult must pronounce the new word with clear articulation so that the pronunciation is fixed in the child’s memory.

It’s good if an adult remembers works of art in which the “dead word” is used: poetic lines, a fairy tale, a story.
Experts advise using life situations when these words can be interpreted from the opposite point of view, that is, choosing antonyms.

Observation with comments

From the very birth of the baby, start talking to him: the baby must get used to the sound of human speech. Lesson options:

While walking, tell your baby everything you see. Try to make the story picturesque and figurative: use many adjectives, use synonyms. An example of a good description: “This is a tree. It is green, bright, with lush foliage. And how big, tall and majestic it is! This is a truly gigantic tree!” Try to comment on events emotionally: say how you feel from contemplating a rainbow or how you feel when a hot object touches your hand.
An eight-month-old child can already be taught about the structure of the body. Touch it and say: “This is a pen, your pen; little pink hand." Then show your hand and say: “This is my hand: look how big it is.” Remember to use as many adjectives as possible.
Organize a joint observation of something: a pet, an insect, a tree swaying in the wind, or something happening on the street. At the same time, comment on what is happening: “Look, a grasshopper is crawling along a leaf. Now he moved his paw. Funny, isn't it? Oh, that’s it, he galloped away.” If possible, let your child touch, smell, or even lick the observed object.
You can conduct several experiments with your child. Bring his hand to the cat’s fur and say: “This is a cat; It’s soft, warm and smooth.” Then invite the baby to hold a piece of ice and say: “This is cold, hard and wet ice.”
From the age of 2, you can purposefully introduce new lexical units into your child’s vocabulary. To do this, you must demonstrate the object to the child, say its name several times and make sure that the baby remembers it. Try to do it naturally. On a walk, as if by the way, show him a tree and say: “This is a spruce.” Point to another spruce and say again: “And this is a spruce.” Then, pointing to the tree, ask: “Do you think this is a spruce?” To make sure that your child remembers the word, point to the spruce and ask: “What kind of tree is this?”

Conversations

From the age of 3, the child already understands the meaning of the text and understands the content of poems and fairy tales that his mother reads to him. Therefore, you can discuss the books you read or the illustrations you viewed. Effective exercises:

the child tells what is shown in the pictures and makes up stories based on them;
the child answers questions based on the text he just listened to (good questions: who did you like best? what event do you remember? what would you do in the hero’s place? why?);
the child describes an object in detail (parents can ask clarifying questions: what shape is it? what color?).

To learn the names of body parts and items of clothing, have your child describe himself or a doll.

Reading fiction

Be sure to read aloud to your child. After all, reading fiction is the most important way to enrich your vocabulary. Children who have loved books since childhood have more developed speech than their peers, are able to construct sentences correctly, and write essays better in school.

When reading a book to your child, try to pronounce words clearly, loudly and correctly, and avoid mistakes in articulation and emphasis. If there are unfamiliar words in the text, explain their meaning to the baby.

Vocabulary games

“Name the animal (plant, name, etc.).” Take the ball and place the children in front of you in a semicircle. Throw the ball to the children one by one: the child who caught the ball must name a word from a given thematic group and throw the ball back. The kid who couldn’t remember the word is eliminated from the game. The winner is the child who was able to stay in the game.
"Edible - inedible." The presenter says any word and throws the ball to the child. If the word denotes an edible object, the child catches the ball; if it is inedible, he throws it away. The exercise helps to understand how correctly the child has mastered the meaning of words. For example, if a child claims that a plate belongs to the group of edible objects, there is reason to think about it.
"Big small". The rules are the same as in the previous game. The presenter pronounces one word from a pair (“chair” or “high chair”, “table” or “little table”, “spoon” or “spoon”). If the child believes that the leader named a small object, he catches the ball, if it is large, he throws it away.
"Package". Each player receives a “package” with some item. The child must describe his subject in detail so that others understand what he is talking about.
"Analogies". Write the “equation” on the card: “A pigeon is a bird, a cat is a ?” The child must understand which thematic group the second word belongs to. This exercise helps you learn words with specific and general meanings.

Formation of active and passive vocabulary

It happens that a child knows a word, but does not use it. The reason often lies in the fact that the baby is not sure of its meaning. He just doesn't know in what context it can be used. The task of parents is to identify these “dead” lexical units and try to transfer them to the active stock (explain their meaning and show an example of use in speech).

Choose a variety of methods to build your child's vocabulary. Active and active children will enjoy playing with a ball: they will diligently remember the words, as long as the game continues. But calm children prefer listening to books and doing exercises with descriptions. And remember! A developed vocabulary is a guarantee of successful learning at school.

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Methods and techniques for enriching the vocabulary of preschool children. Part 1

Svetlana Kalugina

Methods and techniques for enriching the vocabulary of preschool children. Part 1

A rich vocabulary is a sign of a child’s high speech development. Enriching vocabulary is a necessary condition of children's communication skills . In preschool age, a child must master a vocabulary that would allow him to communicate with peers and adults, study successfully at school, understand literature, television and radio programs, etc.

As the preschooler masters the surrounding reality - objects, phenomena (features, properties, qualities), he begins to generalize them according to certain characteristics. Often generalizations are made according to characteristics that are unimportant, but emotionally significant for the child. A typical example is when the baby is a “pussycat”

names not only a cat, but also other fur, fluffy objects, excessively expanding the meaning of this
word .
The same phenomenon, with a different content, can be seen in older children . Thus, they often consider only carrots, onions, and beets to be vegetables, not including, for example, cabbage, cucumber, and tomato. In another case, expanding the meaning of the word , children include “vegetables”

some types of fruits, mushrooms, citing the fact that
“all this grows”
or
“everyone eats this
.
And only gradually, as thinking develops, do they master the objective conceptual content of the word . Thus, the meaning of a word changes throughout preschool childhood as the child’s cognitive abilities develop.
Kindergarten tasks for developing children's vocabulary .

In the domestic methodology for speech development, the tasks of vocabulary work in kindergarten were defined in the works of E. I. Tikheeva, O. I. Solovyova, M. M. Konina and clarified in subsequent years. Today it is customary to distinguish four main tasks:

Firstly, enriching the dictionary with new words , children learning previously unknown words , as well as new meanings for a number of words already in their vocabulary. The enrichment of the dictionary occurs , first of all, due to commonly used vocabulary (names of objects , characteristics and qualities, actions, processes, etc.).

Secondly, consolidation and clarification of vocabulary . This task is due to the fact that in children the word is not always connected with the idea of the object. They often do not know the exact names of objects . Therefore, this includes deepening the understanding of already known words , filling them with specific content, based on an exact correlation with objects of the real world, further mastering the generalization that is expressed in them, and developing the ability to use commonly used words .

Thirdly, activation of the dictionary . Words acquired by children are divided into two categories: passive dictionary ( words that the child understands, associates with certain ideas, but does not use) and active dictionary ( words that the child not only understands, but actively, consciously uses in speech on every appropriate occasion) . When working with children, it is important that a new word enters the active vocabulary . This happens only if it is consolidated and reproduced by them in speech. The child must not only hear the teacher’s speech, but also reproduce it many times, since during perception is involved , and in speaking, also the muscular-motor and kinesthetic analyzers.

The new word should be included in the dictionary in combination with other words so that children get used to using them in the right cases. For example, children freely recite K. Chukovsky’s verses: “Long live fragrant soap!”

- but a rare child, smelling a rose, will say:
“What a fragrant flower”
or, touching a fluffy hat:
“What a fluffy hat!”
In the first case, he will say that the flower smells good, in the second - that the hat is soft.
You should pay attention to clarifying the meaning of words based on contrasting antonyms and comparing words that are similar in meaning, as well as mastering the nuances of word vocabulary flexibility , using words in coherent speech , and in speech practice.
Fourth, eliminating non-literary words (dialect, colloquial, slang)

.
This is especially necessary when children are in environment .
The teacher uses special techniques to ensure that children not only know and understand the meaning of the necessary words , but also actively use them in their speech, so that they develop interest and attention to the word . (Why do they say that? Is it possible to say that? How can I say it better, more precisely)

.
When cultivating a culture of oral speech, it is necessary to wean children from rude expressions or colloquial words , replacing them with literary ones.
All the problems discussed above are interrelated and are solved at a practical level, without using the appropriate terminology.

Methods , directions and techniques for enriching the vocabulary of preschool children

Alekseeva M.M., Yashina V.I. distinguish two groups of methods : methods of accumulating the content of children's speech and methods aimed at consolidating and activating the vocabulary , developing its semantic side .

The first group includes methods :

A) direct familiarization with the environment and enrichment of vocabulary : examination and examination of objects , observation, inspections of the kindergarten premises, targeted walks and excursions;

B) indirect acquaintance with the environment and enrichment of vocabulary : looking at paintings with unfamiliar content, reading works of art, showing films and videos, watching TV shows.

The second group of methods is used to consolidate and activate vocabulary : looking at toys, looking at pictures with familiar content, didactic games and exercises.

The content of vocabulary work becomes more complex from one age group to another . The increase in complexity in the content of the vocabulary work program can be traced in the following three directions:

1. Expanding vocabulary based on familiarization with a gradually increasing range of objects and phenomena .

2. Introduction of words denoting qualities, properties, relationships, based on deepening knowledge about objects and phenomena of the surrounding world.

3. Introduction of words denoting elementary concepts, based on the distinction and generalization of objects according to essential characteristics.

These three areas of vocabulary work take place in all age groups and can be traced in different contents: when familiarizing themselves with objects and natural phenomena, objects of material culture, phenomena of social life, etc.

The content of vocabulary work is based on the gradual expansion, deepening and generalization of children’s knowledge about the objective world .

A child’s acquisition of vocabulary begins with the acquisition of nouns. He names everything that surrounds him: a doll, a bunny, a crib, a pillow, and what makes up parts of his body : a hand, a finger, a head, a nose.

Surrounding objects attract the child’s attention and are named only if the child is allowed to “communicate”

with them: touch if the object is large (wall, floor, or twirl in your hands, stroke, touch, listen (cat, dog, bird), smell (flowers, eat
(porridge, milk)
.

Even at the age of about two years, children have difficulty remembering the name of an object if they just see it. In one kindergarten, a teacher showed two-year-old children a rabbit and said: “Here is a rabbit, here are his ears, look how long they are, here is a short tail.” . The kids were happy about the rabbit, they wanted to touch it, but the teacher pushed them away (they will scare the rabbit, and then they need to wash their hands)

.
Such an “activity
,” as the test showed, did not produce results: the children did not even learn
the word rabbit (they said “kitty”
).
But the children who were given the opportunity to hold a rabbit and touch its ears and tail remembered the words rabbit , tail, and long ears.
a word is first learned, it means for a child the name of only a given, single object (a proper name, and long exercises with this word so that the child understands its general meaning, and it is perceived by him as a concept. As the child learns the meanings one after another such words (a toy is all objects for play, dishes are objects in which they cook and from which they eat, it becomes easier and easier for him to understand new similar words . Consequently, the child’s assimilation words develops the brain, teaches him to perform the mental operation of abstraction .

Verbs and adjectives do not have a zero degree of generalization.

The first verbs acquired by a child are not words in the exact (linguistic)

sense.
Often these are just signals that stimulate some specific actions. At first he says, “Give me, give me!”
, expressing with this
“I want to eat”
,
“I want to play”
,
“I want to listen to a song”
.
But by the middle of the second year of life, the verb to give is filled with meaning for him. As soon as a child begins to use a verb as a separate word , he immediately comprehends its generalized meaning: the baby performs specific actions with objects, seeing how people close to him perform the same actions, and learns the names of these actions. The child sees the same color, shape, size in different objects and begins to understand that the same name for color, shape, size can refer to different objects, i.e. he begins to realize the general meaning of adjectives.
By the age no longer requires direct sensations to assimilate words

The least learned words those that denote phenomena that are more distant from children . For example, people - “this is at the market. Everyone goes and buys"

;
trouble - “this is a girl who doesn’t have an elegant dress”
;
follower - “some kind of hunter is following the trail
.
A preschooler has a tendency to give a literal meaning to the words he pronounces: he calls a pilot “aeroplane”
; in his opinion, you can fly in a hot air balloon or a glider, but an
“aeroplane”
flies only in an airplane.

Children do not immediately learn figurative meanings of words First, the basic meaning is learned. Any use of words in a figurative meaning causes surprise and disagreement among children (hearing the expression “he goes to bed with roosters”

, the child
objects : “No, they will peck.”
).

the figurative use of words that are known to the child in their literal meaning first of all in riddles. For example, listening to the riddle “The girl is sitting in a dungeon, and her scythe is on the street”

and seeing carrots, beets or turnips in his garden bed, the child will understand that the
“maiden”
here is a carrot, i.e. he will understand the transference of the meaning of
the word maiden , if his memory already has images from a fairy tale - “dungeon”
,
“maiden
with a long braid .
The transfer of meaning in this case is based on the external similarity of the situations in which both compared objects are located - the girl in the dungeon and the carrot in the ground. Techniques for teaching understanding the figurative meaning of words used in working with younger preschoolers , of course , cannot be purely verbal : it is necessary to rely on real objects, on pictures. So, for three-year-old children to solve the above riddle, you need to lay out vegetables (turnips, carrots, beets)
or pictures depicting these vegetables in front of them and show them a picture, an illustration for some fairy tale with a
“maiden in a dungeon”
, with a scythe falling from -behind bars and blown by the wind.

So, in order to solve riddles, children must have some life experience and remember both summer and winter impressions.

Sometimes words with a figurative meaning reveal their figurative meaning only in context, thanks to their syntactic connections: at least a minimal coherent text is needed to understand a phrase with a figurative meaning. Compare: the bald head of an old man is the bald head of a mountain; velvet sofa - velvet meadow; the boy whispers - the forest whispers. Consequently, it is possible to train children in understanding the figurative meaning of words only in classes with coherent text. The assimilation of the figurative meaning of words by children is associated with the work of introducing them to fiction.

In order to understand the expressiveness of speech, to understand how the speaker relates to what he is talking about, children must learn a series of synonyms that are contrasted one another in their emotional connotation. So, the words sleep and sleep (rude word )

have the same nominative meaning: they correspond to the same fact of reality -
“to be in a state of sleep
,” i.e., they carry the same reporting function.
But with the help of these words, the speaker differently evaluates the fact of reality he named. At preschool age, children are able to master emotional and stylistic synonyms involved in the creation of speech etiquette. For example, three-year -old children can already learn that they cannot say sleep: it’s rude, which means it’s bad, they should say sleep. Kids often colloquial, non-literary words to kindergarten .
The teacher is obliged to replace them with literary synonyms, explaining to the children the stylistic difference between the two. An explanation to preschoolers of all age levels can only be at the ethical level: “The one who is addressed with such (colloquial)
words is insulting”; “The one who utters such words is a rude, poorly educated person, etc.