Vocabulary

What Did You Say? Activity for an individual child Age group: 30-40 months Duration of activity: 15 minutes Enhance your child's listening skills and auditory discrimination with this silly activity. Review a picture book or magazine with your c...

Sharing Adventures: Reading to Your Two-Year-Old Two is a terrific age for reading to your child. Your toddler wants to build her vocabulary and will eagerly sit to hear stories that offer her new words to learn. But reading books to your todd...

Your Toddler's Development: Building Vocabulary One thing about most two-year-olds: You can't get them to shut up. Your toddler is constantly talking, talking, talking. Your child wants you to understand her experience, just as she herself is be...

Print out this list of nutrition vocabulary words and ask your children to define them. They can practice their research skills by using the dictionary to look up any words they do not know. ...

Dictionary Name Game Required: Dictionary Pen and paper What's in a name? A great opportunity for learning new words—with the help of a dictionary. During breakfast, snack time, or any time you and your child want to expand your vocabularies a...

Action WordsDirectionsIntroduce these words to your child and both of you do the actions together STRETCH, LEAP, SLIDE, RUN, CRAWL, FALL, SPIN, and TURN. Once your child understands what each word means and how to do the action, put on music and ...

Magic BagTime 10 to 15 minutes Materials Old purseSmall items that can't be swallowed, like model cars, playing cards, animal cookies, old key sets, little books Directions Your child will want to share the wonder of each discovery if you fill a...

Abbreviate ItTime 10 to 15 minutes Materials None Directions Teach the concept of abbreviating in a playful way. One of you thinks of two letters that the other has to turn into a phrase that matches the abbreviation. For example, FS could mean ...

Flashlight Fun for ToddlersMaterials Flashlight Directions Shine a flashlight on different parts of a room: a wall, the door, the floor, and so on. Each time you shine the light on an object, name it: for example, "This is the bed." Show your chi...

I Spy Word RecognitionDirections This word game can help develop your child's shape and color recognition skills. As you drive or walk along, say "I spy with my little eye something that is orange," or "... something that is square." Your child w...

Fun with WordsDirections Ask your child to tell you what certain words mean to him. Pick out everyday words that he has likely heard before. Some suggestions to get you started: concrete, marriage, retire, divorce, bachelor, anniversary, occasio...

Word Recognition Materials Index cards Pen or marker Old magazines Photographs (optional) Scissors GlueDirections Once your child can recognize the letters of the alphabet, you may want to start practicing simple word recognition. On one set of i...

Word ChainDirections This game requires two or more players. Think of a category, such as animals. The first player says a word that fits the category, such as cat. The next player says another animal name that begins with the last letter of the ...

BackwordsDirections Choose a word, then challenge your child to reverse the letters of the word (in his head or on paper) and say it backward. For example, tree becomes eert, car becomes rac, and so on. If you like, start with simple one-syllable...