How does understanding & vocabulary increase?

Play and first hand experiences are vital for building up understanding and vocabulary. See how this works for Orson while playing at home and outside exploring with Mum and Dad.

Good for looking at

• The role of play
• Developing understanding
• Increasing vocabulary
• Sentences and descriptive words
• Learning outdoors

Transcript of video – How do understanding and spoken vocabulary increase?  

What children need over early childhood is plenty of first hand experiences. They need time, they need space, they need flexible resources, often very simple. And they need to be allowed to just organise their own play.

He pretends to read the story to get the fireman to sleep. Pretend play is also invaluable in the way that it encourages and advances his language. He talks about what he’s doing using longer sentences and descriptive words.

Because they are relaxed, that’s where they will happily use their language. They will then weave in their pretending to read, their pretend writing. All those things through having enough time to let their play develop. And that we are close by, we are a playful companion, we join in sometimes, we follow their orders in play and we don’t take over the play.  

As well as allowing the space and time for children to organise their own play, they also need time to experience their environment and find out more about what interests them. He’s engaged, listening carefully to dad, soaking up new words and information.