Vocabulary Development

Vocabulary refers to the words that we understand (receptive vocabulary) and say (expressive vocabulary). Vocabulary is very important, as it affects a child’s ability to communicate with others. Vocabulary is also important for reading as children enter grade school. The table on this page provides a guide for how many words a child should have by a certain age. However, it is often hard to measure the amount of words that a child has in their expressive vocabulary. Here are some other signs that may indicate that your child is struggling with learning vocabulary.

• Difficulty with telling you a story, or events that happened (e.g., telling you what happened at school)
• Using generic terms like ‘this’, ‘that’ and ‘thing’ (e.g., I want the thing)
• Using words incorrectly and inappropriately
• Not able to make connections between different words (e.g., a lemon is a type of fruit. A circle is a type of shape).