Do you think the younger generations are not as skilled with their words as previous ones? In one respect, it’s easy to see the effects of predictive text and the internet at our fingertips. But it’s so important for our children to be able to express themselves through their vocabulary rather than anything else. What can we do as parents to build a better and more robust vocabulary in our children?
Encourage Play
Playing with words is an amazing way to become more acquainted with the ins and outs of a language, and we can use the internet to do this. For example, there’s a great word unscrambler tool that can be very useful in these settings. Younger children can benefit from learning the importance of playfulness with words. Words are not set in stone, and there can be an abundance of methods to encourage our kids to express themselves in different ways. Encouraging playing with words can be as simple as playing games such as Scrabble, but also encouraging them to write stories about the things they care about. Younger kids are more prone to drawing, and it’s easy to see why because their vocabulary hasn’t expanded yet. But it’s always worth focusing on encouraging our kids to express themselves through their words as soon as possible.
Encourage as Much Storytelling as Possible (in Every Format)
Sometimes we can think that in order to give our children a better vocabulary, they need the best of the best in terms of literature. This isn’t actually the case because everything is valid, even if your kids are scouring YouTube comments. It’s important for them to discern between good and bad grammar and good and bad spelling. This is probably part of the reason younger generations don’t seem to be the best spellers; they’ve looked at how other people have formed words and sentences and have used improper grammar. But it’s all grist to the mill. When we encourage storytelling in every different type of format, it’s worth observing the form and structure being used and being able to point out to our kids if it’s not being used correctly. From books to comic books, songs, and jokes, we can encourage our children to learn new things, which can foster creativity and humor while also expanding their vocabulary.
Being a Model for Good Language
Ultimately, we can only be a product of our surroundings, and if our children use improper grammar and we pick up on this, it should force us to have a look at how we use our words. There are plenty of colloquialisms that slip into our everyday speech, and it can be very hypocritical if we tell our children they need to speak a certain way when we don’t model this behavior ourselves. Ultimately having a look at how we speak can be invaluable because it helps us to reevaluate our approaches to words and will have a positive impact on our children growing up.
It’s amazing how much of a language barrier we can experience even with our own native language. It’s more important than ever to help our children use words to express themselves but also not rely on devices. There’s a place for tools to help us; however, for the sake of everybody’s sense of self in a world replete with easy options, helping our kids be better with their language can be an invaluable solution.
