There are many aspects attributing to the expanding vocabulary gap in children. One reason may be socioeconomic factors such as parental education levels, income disparity and lack of language exposure. Variation in educational factors such as quality of Early Years teaching, resources and curriculum also lead to differences in vocabulary acquisition.
Other factors to consider are speech and language disorders and cognitive development, home environment, cultural factors and technical factors such as screen time.
The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown had significant impacts on speech, language, and early years development in children. For example, reduced social interaction due to isolation and remote learning gave children less opportunities for social interaction and the effective language instruction from in-person learning.
Early years practitioners have an important role in addressing the vocabulary gap. We can make an impact on children's experiences by engaging them in conversations to significantly enhance their vocabulary development.
Early years opportunities for interactions are crucial for the development of young children. They help foster social, emotional, cognitive, and language development.
One of the things I have done over the last few years is a talking focus 'word of the week' shared with parents each week. I send an image with a learning focus (either curriculum based or children's interest) and a question for discussion. Children are encouraged to discuss this word at home or even create something related to the word and we share as a class discussions at the end of the week. I have found the children have engaged well with this and have loved the high level vocabulary. They LOVE big words!
Other ways of introducing high-level vocabulary to young children included reading aloud high quality texts, engaging in meaningful conversations, songs and rhymes, word games and asking open-ended questions.
We need to be introducing high level interactions with children throughout the day. Every interaction counts!
Closing the vocabulary gap with quality interactions
