By Nan Bernstein Ratner, Ed.D.
University of Maryland

It may seem paradoxical, but word retrieval is faster when a child knows more words and has a better “network” that creates connections among them.

To help with this, try the following:

1. Help to “grow” your child’s vocabulary. How? Read with your child regularly.

2. Talk about EVERYTHING that you do. Parental input is a major determinant of child vocabulary skill, and more vocabulary leads to improvements in all areas of vocabulary, including word retrieval.

3. When you talk about words, help your child to establish the network – the connections between words: talk about a word’s opposites: cold and hot, up and down, etc. If the word is an object, talk about its parts and uses.

4. Even children’s mental lexicons are beginning to organize in terms of sounds – help your child explore how words sound – if a child is actually stuck, see if s/he remembers the sound it starts with, or another word that somehow sounds like it, or means something like it – but – don’t encourage your child to substitute or circumlocute around a word that is hard to findTeach the child to think a moment on the word that is hard to find; if you think you have an accurate idea of the target, try to see if cuing with a sound helps – but be careful – we know in stuttering that people finishing words for others, or “mind-reading” the wrong target is very aggravating.

5. Play “word games” to enrich your child’s network – how many words can they think of that start with a particular sound? How many items in a category (e.g., foods, cars, animals) can they think of? How many words can they use to describe an activity or a toy? In short, despite the fact that it should take longer to look up a target word in a big dictionary than a small one, having more words in your mental dictionary makes you faster, not slower, in word retrieval. Likewise, we are helped by associations AMONG words, unlike a printed dictionary. Build stronger associations among the words you know and you will get to them faster.

From the Summer 2015 Newsletter