Reading ready for Pre-school

Nobody can forget their child’s first word, which is usually ‘mama’ or ‘dada’, however it could also be ‘baba’, which made you smile with happiness. It is natural to rejoice when your toddler shows first signs of growing. Whether they speak for the first time, or start walking for the first time. Your enthusiasm for your child’s acquisition of language skills, motivates your child to learn. Your pre-schoolchild’s acquisition of words, shows its preparedness for pre-schooleducation. 

It is important that as parents you should do everything to prepare your child’s vocabulary as he reaches the stage to join nursery school. In a study it was found that children who were exposed to challenging words at age three performed well in standardized tests than children who were not exposed to difficult words.

An interesting mealtime game could be introducing interesting new words, when your child is comfortable. Do not serve a dictionary at mealtime, instead talk with your little one, describe something that you saw, and strategically introduce new words. This will make your child curious and he may ask the meaning of the new word, thus your little one is on his way to learning new words.

Read to your child

Reading a story to your child, brings the story to life for both of you. Your child benefits by the growing vocabulary.His imagination is also stimulated, thus story reading provides double benefit, first the growing vocabulary and the second stimulation of the imagination. You could ask lots of questions while reading and thus nurture your child’s reading comprehension. While reading if your child can’t make out the meaning of a word, ask your child to study the illustration to find clues. While reading ask open-ended questions like,“what do you think will happen next?” making your child listen carefully and also trying to comprehend the meaning of words and comprehending the story as well. These kinds of interactions with your child along with introduction of new words to enhance your child’s vocabulary, will ensure your child is successful at school.

Play guessing games

If your child is stuck with the meaning of a word, don’t give out the meaning, instead encourage your child to guess the meaning from the context. Give out words that are related to the word, or synonyms. Thus your child will come out with the exact meaning, reward when your child guesses the meaning.

Show objects and tell

Show your child objects, and then explain its function. For instance show your child the mixer, tell how it eases your workload in the kitchen. This will add one word to your child’s vocabulary where it is sure what a mixer is. 

Play make believe games

Playing make believe or role play can expose your child to many new words. It is fun and a great way to enhance your child’s vocabulary.

All these activities will ensure your child has a good vocabulary and better prepared for pre-school. This will also result in his future performance being better.