Strategies to Increase Vocabulary

Help to support your client’s vocabulary development by:

  • When learning more abstract words, try to use concrete materials as much as possible to help them make associations.
  • Encourage your client to communicate verbally as much as possible. They should be given a great deal of support and encouragement for doing so.
  • Identify and discuss unknown vocabulary words before reading to help the client’s comprehension and learning.
  • During teaching, highlight the vocabulary for a new content area or unit. Provide explicit instruction to emphasize understanding of the meaning of the new vocabulary. 
    • When possible, use concrete materials to demonstrate abstract concepts. 
    • Visual aids, dramatics, demonstrations, use-in-context, and discussion will be helpful.
  • During teaching, highlight the vocabulary within a story, theme, or unit approach, rather than out of context in dictionaries or word lists.
    • Retention will be lower when the words are presented in random groupings.
    • Introduce new vocabulary based on themes, to help provide context for learning. 
    • Enlist the help of parents in reinforcing the use of vocabulary as it is presented in the classroom.
  • Introduce new vocabulary in grammatically simple sentences that clearly convey the meaning.
  • When using new words in oral language, use stress and pausing to emphasize the words.
  • Encourage those around the client to use new words in a variety of contexts. Be repetitive and provide many examples in order to reinforce learning.  Encourage students to come up with their own sentences for these words (both orally and in writing).
  • Demonstrate the multiple meanings of words through several example sentences. Discuss these multiple meanings.  Encourage students to give examples of different meanings.
  • Encourage clients to use contextual cues to guess the meaning of a word.
  • Emphasize root words, word families, and the meaning of common prefixes and suffixes, to help students analyze and learn new words.
  • Provide written supplements (e.g., word banks, words, and definitions on a bulletin board or on handouts, etc.) for the students to consult and review.
  • Relate new vocabulary words to all senses whenever possible (e.g., for “automobile”, have students imagine the sound, smell, feeling, and look of a new car).
  • When possible, use concrete materials to demonstrate abstract concepts. Visual aids, dramatics, demonstrations, use-in-context, and discussion will be helpful.
  • Tie concrete and abstract concepts to practical experiences
    • For example, the concept “good” in “I feel good” can be related to the sensation of completing a difficult task, a cool swim on a hot day, enjoying a delicious dessert, etc.
  • Encourage the client to engage in the exploration of antonyms, synonyms, and homonyms (where applicable) related to new vocabulary words.
  • Encourage the client’s teacher to provide written supplements (e.g., word banks, words and definitions on a bulletin board or on handouts, etc.) for the students to consult and review.
  • Whenever possible, follow figurative use of a word with the literal interpretation.