Vocabulary is Key for School Success
Vocabulary is key for school success and, believe it or not, it starts with gesturing with kids at home. The information in the article “Children’s Early Gestures Have Important Link to School Preparedness” is quite fascinating and says that kids who convey more meanings with gestures around one year will have much larger vocabularies at around the 2 year point than those who convey fewer meanings.
More specifically, it showed approximately 12-month-old children who were from well-educated, higher-income homes could convey approximately 24 different meanings through gesturing compared to only about 13 gestures from lower-income homes. Then, once they’re in school, it added that kids from higher-income homes had a comprehension vocabulary of approximately 117, as measured on a standardized test, compared to about 93 for kids from lower-income families.
The name of this next article “Learning in Your Mother Tongue First is Key to Success at School” basically says it all. The most interesting part is that parents don’t always know this. As such, schools should be pro-active in letting parents of dual language learners (DLL) know the importance of the home language, because once they do, they’re more likely to maintain it.
Another article, “Pass the Word–A Strong Vocabulary Is the Key to Success,” says the importance of a strong vocabulary cannot be overstated. Hands-down, children with the best vocabulary perform better on college entrance exams, job interviews and social situations of all kinds, it said.
One of the easiest ways parents can helps their kids’ vocabulary is to take turns reading out loud to them, according to the article. It sounds obvious, it added, but a lot of parents don’t do it, which could be because they don’t know the benefits.
To help with vocabulary and reading skills, schools should consider the Latino Family Literacy Project for Hispanic students, as it guides parents in establishing a regular, bilingual, reading routine where they can take turns reading out loud, which benefits both. Teachers can attend a one-day, program training workshop near them or via an online webinar.