Transcript Popular Links - UNC School of Medicine

Vocabulary
Lillian Henderson, MSP, CCC-SLP, LSLS Cert. AVT
Erin Thompson, MS, CCC-SLP, LSLS Cert. AVT
What we’re going to talk about today:
 Vocabulary:




What is it?
How do kids learn vocabulary?
Impact of Hearing Loss on vocabulary development
Why is it important?
 Vocabulary Development
 How to Teach Vocabulary
 The vocabulary hierarchy
 Practice!
 Strategies:
 Different strategies for different stages of development
 Selecting Vocabulary:
 Where to find it?
 What to pick!
Vo-cab-u-lary (noun)
: a sum or stock of words employed by a language,
group, individual, or work or in a field of knowledge
How Do Children with Normal
Hearing Learn Vocabulary?
 Babies learn words by listening to their
caregivers. Research that was
conducted by Parents Report showed
that children learn words faster by
hearing more words consistently. –
Richard Laliberte
The Word Gap in Hearing Children
 Hart and Risley,(1995) found a vocabulary gap at the
age of three, based on parents’ socioeconomic status.
 Children of Professional families used 1100 words
 Children of Working class families used 650 words
 Children of Welfare families used 400 words
 Children from high socioeconomic status had 16
times more language stimulation than children from
lower status families.
What Happens In Kindergarten?
 Scarborough (2001) showed convincing evidence that
children who enter kindergarten with weak language
(vocabulary) skills are likely to encounter difficulty in
learning to read.
Why Is Vocabulary SO Important?
 “To read a book with ease, a child should be able to
read about 19 out of 20 words on a page correctly. If
not, the book is probably too difficult.” Shaywitz
(2003)
 Reading is a poor means of acquiring initial language skills.
To learn a significant amount of language through reading,
children must already have basic visual word recognition
skills, a good vocabulary, an awareness of syntactic skills,
understanding of the semantic properties of words and
sentences, and extensive experience of the world around
them. Only if such skills are present can children search a
text for it’s meaning.” Ling, Foundations of Spoken
Language for the Hearing Impaired
 The child with severely delayed language and vocabulary is
not ready to read. “Because one must know and be able
to use the language that is to be read, the best way to
work with such a child is to concentrate on his/her
acquisition of lang. & vocabulary.”
(L. Robertson, 2000)
 “Low oral vocabulary and poorer overall language
skills begin to exact a heavy toll on reading
achievement by grade 3 when text demands increase.”
(Storch & Whitehurst, 2002)
Vocabulary Development






Expressive
12-18 mo.
18-24 mo.
2-3 yrs.
3-4 yrs.
5-6 yrs
To go on to higher education, kids need to know
100,000 words!

Owens, R.E. (1992). Language Development: An Introduction,
3rd edition. New York: MacMillian.
Bricks to Build Your House!
Age:
Vocabulary: Syntax:
12 months
1st word emerges
one word
18 months
50 words
Maybe 2 word combos
2 years
300 words
Average 2 word phrases
3 years
425-900 words
Average 3-4 word sent.
4 years
1500 words
*Average 4-5 word sent.
5 years
2500 words
Average 5-8 word sent.
* Children are now using grammatically correct sentences, words are not being omitted.
By age 5, typically
developing children
are learning as many
as _____ new words
every day.
How Does This Affect Children
Who are Hearing Impaired?
 Children who have hearing loss & especially children
who were identified later are not given the full benefit of
“overhearing” their caregivers talking.
 So, they may not quickly “pick up” vocabulary words that
are said throughout the day.
 This makes it critical for parents to focus on informal
language stimulation techniques.
 If the child continues to have difficulty learning
vocabulary, a hierarchy should be followed to TEACH the
vocabulary.
Vocabulary Hierarchy
INPUT
COMPREHENSION
IMITATION
USE
Vocabulary Hierarchy
Input:
 Repeatedly say new words in meaningful context.
 The child participates in the activity and listens.
Vocabulary Hierarchy
Comprehension:
 Ask the child to demonstrate comprehension of an idea.
(Where is the ____?)
 The child demonstrates comprehension by doing the
action. He/She does not verbalize.
Vocabulary word: Throw
 How to check for
comprehension:
1.
2.
3.
Playing with a child and you give
them a ball.
You ask them to throw the ball.
The child then throws the ball.
 Does the child have
comprehension of the word
“throw”?
Checking for Comprehension
ANSWER?
Checking for Comprehension
 A more effective approach to check for
comprehension of a word may be to hand the child
sand and ask them to throw it!
 If the child holds the
sand and does nothing
with it after you ask
them to “throw” it, then
they probably do not
understand “throw.”
Vocabulary Hierarchy
Imitation:
 Teacher says the word and asks the child to repeat.
 The child repeats the word.
Vocabulary Hierarchy
USE:
 Asks the child to use the word. (What’s that? Or Tell
me about that?)
 Child uses the word on his/her own.
What comes first?
PRACTICE!!
Strategies
That promote auditory learning of language targets
Direct Strategies for INPUT!
 Auditory Bombardment
 Acoustic Highlighting
 Modeling
 Parentese
Informal Strategies for INPUT!
 Self Talk
 Parallel Talk
 Descriptions
 Repetition
 Expansion
 Expansion Plus
Imitation Strategies
 WAIT TIME
 Model + Expectant Look.
 Have child tell another person. For example, “Tell
Susie, ‘I need that one.’”
 Give a choice of two words/phrases with the target
language being the last choice.
 LAST DITCH EFFORT: Can you say, “_____?”
Delayed Imitation Strategies
Encourage child to think on his own a bit more…
 Ask another person a question then immediately
ask the same question of the child.
 Direct child to tell another person, e.g., say, “Tell
Susie, ‘I need that one.’” Then direct him to tell 2
or 3 more people (or stuffed animals or dolls.)
Prompting For USE!
 Stop talking. Provide frequent pauses in your input and WAIT
for the child to initiate conversation. This may take several
seconds or even close to a minute. Resist the urge to
continually provide input.
 Look expectantly at child and WAIT.
 Lean toward child, cup your ear and WAIT.
 Set up a situation in a way that creates a reason (other than to
please the adult) for the child to communicate his ideas, i.e.,
give the child a puzzle board and keep the pieces or give the
child half of what he needs to complete a task. (SABOTAGE!)
 Begin a sentence containing part of the target and wait to let the
child complete it.
Rate of Expressive Vocabulary Acquisition
 Vocabulary Goal: (to maintain “normal” rate of progress)
Spontaneously produce a core vocabulary of 10 new words
each week.
 How to determine this goal: Child currently has a vocab.
age of approximately 2 yrs, (i.e. ___ words expressively). By
this time next year, they will need to use approximately ___
words, (i.e. gain __ new words) over the next year. This
equals approximately 10 new words each week (10 words x
__ wks = ___ words).
Resources for Development of Expressive Vocabulary
In the beginning:
 “Power Words”
 Lexicon 1
*pdf
*pdf
DON’T FORGET INCIDENTAL LEARNING AT ALL
LEVELS!!!!
Resources for Development of Expressive Vocabulary
 Ling Basic Vocabulary & Language Thesaurus Levels 1 &





2 (currently out of print)
Tina Bangs - 3 year old word list *pdf
Tina Bangs – Prepositions *pdf
Tina Bangs – Categories *pdf
Denver 230 Word List *pdf
Basic Word List – 250 words of highest frequency
*pdf
DON’T FORGET INCIDENTAL LEARNING AT ALL LEVELS!!!!
Resources for Development of Expressive Vocabulary
Preparing for School:
(formal reading instruction)
 Ling Basic Vocabulary & Language Thesaurus Levels 3
(currently out of print)
 Children’s Classic Literature
 Synonyms
 Reading Text Analysis
Looking up definitions in a dictionary is not an
effective way to teach vocabulary!!
Reading Text Analysis: Thundercake
On sultry summer days at my grandma’s farm in
Michigan, the air gets damp and heavy. Storm clouds
drift low over the fields. Birds fly close to the ground.
The could glow for an instant with a sharp, crackling
light, and then a roaring, low, tumbling sound of
thunder makes the windows shudder in their panes.
The sound used to scare me when I was little…..
Reading Text Analysis Steps
1. You say the word
2.Child says the word back to you (ask the child to
say the word back to you) repeating the word
allows the word, child uses their auditory feedback
loop, allows the word to get into their memory.
3.Give the child a definition of the word (simple def
of what the word means….NOT WEBSTER!)
4.Use the word in a sentence
5.Ask child to use the word in a different sentence
How Does This Effect Children
Who are Hearing Impaired?
 Pre-teaching
- What is it?
- Who does it?
- How much and when?
- Why?
Prefixes, Suffixes and Root Words
 Systematically teach children meanings of prefixes,
suffixes and root words
 The majority of English words are created through
combining prefixes and suffixes with base words and
word roots.
 If a child understands how this process works, they
possess one of the most powerful understandings
necessary for vocabulary growth (Anderson &
Freebody, 1981)
Link Spelling to Reading and Vocab.
 Spelling knowledge applies not only to the ability to
encode words during writing; importantly, it also
underlies ability to decode words during the process
of reading (Templeton, 2003a, 2003b).
 Spelling patterns reflect meaning, which can lead to
vocabulary growth
 Bomb/bombard
 Muscle/muscular
 Compete/competition
Dictionaries, Thesauruses, References
 Teach the effective, efficient, realistic use of
dictionaries, thesauruses and other reference works.
Word Learning Strategies
 Research shows that students can be taught strategic behaviors to improve
their ability to learn the meaning or words (Kuhn and Stahl, 1998).
 Step 1: Carefully look at the word, decide how to





pronounce it
Step 2a: Look around the word for context clues
Step 2b: Look in the word for prefixes, suffixes, base
words and root words that might offer clues
Step 3: Make your best guess at the word’s meaning
Step 4a: If you don’t have a good idea of the meaning, use
a dictionary or glossary.
Step 4b: If you think you’ve figured out the meaning of
the word or if the word doesn’t seem important, keep
reading.
Create awareness and interest in words
 Just as children have varying language levels, they




have varying degrees of interest in words.
It’s important to develop an interest in words.
Create “word-a-day” routines to focus on interesting,
challenging words
Vocabulary notebooks to encourage children to write
down interesting words they come across.
Use fascinating stories and word origin information
to help increase student interest in words
Have you read to your child today?
“Extensive research has proven that
reading aloud to a child is the
single most important factor in
raising a reader”. J. Trelease
 “The single most important activity for building the
knowledge required for eventual success in reading is
reading aloud to children.”
 Events where in addition to reading aloud to stimulate
an interest in books and reading, there is also a
deliberate teaching of skills that will promote
independence in reading, such as an increased
vocabulary.
Wide Reading
 The importance of wide reading in the growth of vocabulary is critical
(Nagy & Anderson, 1984)
 Staggering numbers of new words children learn each year are
impossible to teach directly. Anderson (1996) estimates that would
require teaching 20 new words every day of the school year.
 Through wide independent reading, students come in contact with
vocabulary that rarely occurs in spoken language
 High level vocabulary isn’t being learned from TV or conversation!!!
(Cunningham & Stanovich, 1998)
Prime time television vocabulary is less challenging than the
vocabulary in children’s books
College graduate’s conversation includes vocabulary less
challenging than preschool books
QUESTIONS??
THANK YOU!
 Information in this presentation was gathered from
prior workshops and Auditory Verbal Modules
 Special thanks to information contributed by:
Kathryn Wilson
Beth Walker
Sherri Vernelson