Want some easy ways to expand your preschooler’s vocabulary, spark those reading skills, and improve communication? My boys and I have a few fun activities and daily habits that work really well—one of them even turns doodles into giggles almost like magic!
Here are three fun things we like to do on the regular to boost language skills:
📕 Keep a journal together
Take turns drawing in a notebook and talking about your drawings. Use descriptive words to explain even the simplest pictures.
Hearing the way you describe things makes it easier for kids to connect words with their meanings (and as their vocab grows, this just gets more and more fun—I’ll never forget when my youngest described his doodle of an aquarium as a “fish museum” 😂).
👀 Play “I Spy”
It’s a great game for introducing new words! If you’ve never played before, the rules are simple: take turns choosing items from the room, for example an apple on the kitchen counter, and saying, “I spy with my little eye, something that’s the color red,” and letting the other person guess what object you’re thinking of.
You can really customize it to your child’s age by doing things like limiting their search to only items on one page of a book you’re looking at together, or by offering clues while they’re guessing; you’ll help build your child’s language skills by using position words (in front, next to, under) as well as descriptive words (big, shiny, round).
During your child’s turn you can encourage them to use expressive words by asking questions about color, size, and shape.
🤓 Stretch your creativity—and your word bank—in everyday conversation
See something large? Call it “enormous!” Feeling tired? Say, “I’m exhausted!”
The Fancy Nancy book series is great for this, too—Nancy *always* describes things in the fanciest way possible. 💅
The more words your child hears, the quicker they’ll start using them!
