Vocabulary Building; Downtown

A child may have difficulty acquiring new vocabulary.  A robust vocabulary is essential for comprehending oral and written language, as well as to express oneself.  This post will address how to build vocabulary at the medium and advanced levels.

Exposure to new words is key, as is using these "new" words until they become second nature.  A great source for vocabulary words is looking at your child's classroom textbooks, particularly reading/language texts.  Choose words that your child is currently working on, or will be working on shortly, and use them yourself in order to model word usage.  For the more ambitious that want to target "bonus words," I recommend searching for the most common SAT words.  Here is a link from Kaplan posted on the washingtonpost.com on the 100 most common SAT words: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/eduadv/kaplan/kart_ug_sat100.html

I suggest choosing a few of the words, and finding a way to use them in your daily Pittsburgh life.  Be upfront with your child that you will be practicing learning new words.  Going downtown is a great place to start.

For example, if you are targeting the word "abbreviation," then find abbreviations downtown.  For example, UPMC:


Image retrieved from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Steel_Tower.

To target "anachronistic," look for things that are out-of-date.  For example, the cobblestone on Grant Street:


Image retrieved from http://www.city-data.com/businesses/118378074-nicky-s-grant-street-pittsburgh-pa.html

To target "deleterious," look for things that are dangerous.  For example, crossing new a bus lane:

Image retrieved from http://www.citylab.com/work/2012/12/people-live-and-work-downtown-pittsburgh-how-can-city-get-them-shop-there/4088/

While you are out and about, I also recommend reviewing synonyms and antonyms for target words for increased practice.

Visuals are very powerful for learning vocabulary.  Here is a link to a site that links photographs with vocabulary words from easy to hard: http://insidestoryflashcards.com/printable_flashcards/index.php?set=medium  Amazon.com also features illustrations of SAT words, such as from the book "Picture These SAT Words" by Greer.