SIX Ways to Improve Vocabulary

Why is vocabulary improvement crucial in speech therapy, and what are six effective strategies to achieve this goal? Explore our comprehensive guide to discover practical techniques and activities tailored to enhance vocabulary skills in speech therapy sessions. Caregivers can help improve their child’s vocabulary by practicing categorization, association, using themed-units, identifying attributes, and understanding context clues together.

The title: speech pathologist is rather misleading as it implies that we only work on speech.  Whether we work in private practice, hospitals, or school settings, speech pathologists address language delays just as much as speech and articulation disorders.  One aim of this post is to enhance expressive and receptive vocabulary skills, considering comprehension’s significance for meaningful language use. Some children excel expressively but require receptive skill development. Others need more focus on expression. Still, others can show a delay in both areas.  After formal evaluation, a therapy plan is designed to best meet your child’s needs.

CATEGORIZATION

There are a few strategies that we can use to help improve vocabulary skills. The essence of this work is to teach children how to store vocabulary concepts like a filing system.  Categorization activities may involve asking the child to name or identify members of a target group.  For example, three items that belong in a zoo group include: lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!) On the flip side, we can also ask the child to provide or find the category name for a group of its members.  We address categorization skills every day in our functional routines when we put away groceries, laundry, and toys.

HOME ACTIVITY: 

I had the good fortune to work with some exceptional Speech-Language Pathologists early on in my career.  During one of my observations, I watched students play a lively, category game using just brown paper lunch bags and small sheets of paper.  This game can easily be adapted for children in 1st through 5th grade.  If your child is younger and has a hard time reading, then you can always put pictures on the bags in place of words. 

Before you begin, get at least 10 paper bags, and write the names of various category groups on each one.  Then, make a list, using a small piece of paper or half of an index card, of 4-5 group members.  For pictures on bags, create and attach them. Make groups like Colors challenging by listing specific members, not just primary colors.

This is how you play:

Have your child set up bags with category titles. Then, read category members aloud for your child to listen. Then, have your child take the paper and place it in the correct bag.  At the end, I always go back and take a paper out of the bag and practice recalling category members. You can make it into a game by giving a point for every correct placement for the word list and a point for each member he or she can recall from the list.

ASSOCIATIONS

Word associations are another example of teaching a “filing” system for word retrieval. These word pairs express a relationship that comes in many forms such as:

• Opposites (night and day)
• Synonyms (large and big)
• Part-Whole (wheel and car)
• Attributes (yellow and bees)
• Functions (sleep and bed)

THEMED-BASED UNITS

Themed based units typically follow seasonal events, activities, and familiar sights throughout the year.  You can even build categorization and association strategies using themed units.  This approach can be effective because you teach what the child is exposed to in his or her everyday life, which can make these terms become more functional as the child can apply therapeutic learning naturally in other settings.

ATTRIBUTES

Another strategy for improving vocabulary is teaching attributes for target words.  Here, we incorporate games, worksheets, and homework lessons that focus on describing items according to their function or use, color, shape, and size.  We can also use other senses like taste and touch to define words.  In this way, we have taken one vocabulary word and taught up to six more while formulating definitions.

HOME ACTIVITY:

Here’s an association activity based on seasonal themes and incorporating attributes that you can do for each season of the year with your child.

SUMMER: First, make a yellow circle and write in the middle, “Things that make me think of summer.” Then, cut up to 10-15 strips of paper to make the rays for the sun.  Finally, brainstorm associations together and write down answers on rays. Some associative words my son helped me come up with for this task included: pool, beach, lake, water, hot, heat, ice cream, sunscreen, vacation, and swim.

FALL:  Create a tree with different colored leaves for association words: colors, windy, apples, pumpkins, football, leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving, hayrides, and scarecrow.

WINTER: Use snowflakes for association words and form these into a giant snowball. Some suggested terms: cold, ice, snow, coats, hot chocolate, holidays, snowman, sledding, ice skating, and boots.

SPRING: Create a giant center to a flower and write these words on petals and stems: warm, crisp, rainy, bloom, flowers, green, jackets, growth, new, and muddy.

CONTEXT CLUES/ WORD PARTS (PREFIXES, SUFFIXES)

Utilizing curriculum vocabulary with older children poses challenges in language goals due to progress assessment difficulties in my experience.  However, we can measure improvement in a child’s ability to interpret vocabulary meaning in context or demonstrate knowledge of word parts.  One of my most treasured purchase from Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is product called: Context Clues Packet using Tier Vocabulary by Nicole Allison.  It is engaging and comprehensive for both elementary and middle school students. I especially like having answer choices for determining vocabulary meaning in context because it teaches another strategy of eliminating less obvious selections.

As support staff, we are challenged with helping foster independence with our students.  We will not be there during their classroom instruction or testing to provide cues and probes to increase comprehension, so we need to teach strategies for unaided success. Incorporating the above mentioned techniques into daily activities at home can significantly boost your child’s vocabulary development. Remember, even just reading together is a great way to expand language skills!