Would the lack of reading or conversation have an effect on children’s vocabulary? Yes, according to a study carried out by the Scientific Council of National Education. The understanding of everyday words would thus be in danger.
15 common words caused problems
The Scientific Council of National Education thus carried out a study on 605,582 children in CP class in 2018, in order to know their level of understanding of
via words, sentences and texts.
One of the tests requested highlighted the lack of understanding of everyday words: it consisted of circling one of four images, which corresponded to the word spoken by the teacher. Of the 15 words proposed by the teachers (which a 6 year old child must have already encountered) 51.42% of the children understood 13.
These were:
- Winter ;
- laugh ;
- nail ;
- sew ;
- veil ;
- hide ;
- pedal;
- saw;
- wake up;
- run ;
- break; break;
- trunk ;
- keel;
- elbow ;
- thunderstorm.
A judged exercise “relatively easy” by the CSEN, which concludes that too many students begin their schooling with “a significant functional disability”.
The results also show disparities:
- Girls are further ahead than boys in terms of acquired vocabulary.
- The socio-economic background has an important impact on language comprehension: students educated in priority education zones obtain worse results.
Enrich your child’s vocabulary from an early age
The Council then reminds that it remains essential to enrich the child’s vocabulary from an early age, especially since the appearance of screens which can monopolize our attention.
As a guide, know that a child aged between 4 and 6 months must recognize the words ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’. At 18 months, he should know around 50 words, at 2 years between 100 and 300 words, at 4 years 1,500 words and at 5 years 2,000 words.
But there is no need to read Proust to your child to give them a taste for words. To develop a young child’s vocabulary, several possibilities are recognized and remain simple:
- Systematically name everything around you, whether at home or outside;
- Read stories regularly, explain words he doesn’t understand, and introduce each new word several times;
- Encourage him to talk about his day at nursery or school;
- Play puppets or play board games with him, which allows you to interact and express yourself.