As a Headteacher of a primary school, I see the huge difference that a child’s vocabulary makes to their learning every day.

A rich vocabulary allows children to say exactly what they mean. Knowing and using lots of words helps them to understand what others are saying, to talk and write in an engaging way, and to better understand the world around them.

Support from parents makes a massive difference to the number and variety of words a child knows. One of the best ways to improve your child’s vocabulary is to play word games and activities at home. Not only is this an effective way to boost your child’s future success – it can also be fun and engaging for the whole family!

Here are some ideas for fun games you can play to build your child’s vocabulary and confidence with words.

Building your toddler’s vocabulary

• Ask questions about stories. For example, ‘Is Buzz helpful to Woody? Is the Gruffalo really scary? Do you think the mouse is a clever mouse? How do you know?’
• From nursery onwards, encourage your child to answer questions in developed phrases rather than in one or two words.
• Try to add more description to your own speech. For example, saying ‘Please could you pass me the large blue spoon with the wooden handle?’ exposes your child to more words than just saying ‘Please could you pass me the spoon?’

Building your child’s vocabulary at primary school

Ideally, a new word needs to be used six to twelve times, in different ways, to be remembered long term. Here are some ideas for repeating and reusing words in interesting ways.

1. Play word games

You could explore synonyms (words that mean the same thing) together. See how many different words your child can think of forÌęnice,Ìępretty, orÌętall. Some healthy competition with friends or siblings can help to make this fun.

2. Act out abverbs

Ask your child toÌęscamper silently,Ìęcrawl slowly,Ìęscuttle rapidly,Ìęsmile sweetly, orÌęspeak menacingly. Children love this!

3. Master meaning

When reading together, ask your child questions focusing around a particular word, such as:

• ‘Could we say that Verruca Salt isÌęselfish? Why? Why not?’
• ‘Could aÌęselfishÌęperson ever be kind? Can you give an example?’
• ‘Is Charlie BucketÌęselfish? Could we say he isÌęunselfish?’
• ‘When have you beenÌęunselfish? DoesÌęunselfishÌęmean the same thing as kind?’

4. Talk at the table

• Talk about food when you’re at the dinner table. Use interesting words to describe what you are eating: ‘My peas are not just nice and tasty – they areÌędelicious, they areÌęscrumptious. Do you think they areÌęscrumptious?’
• Dinnertime is also a good opportunity to ask your child about their day. For example, you could ask, ‘What do you remember from your lessons today?’ and encourage lots of detail. You can model this by talking about your own day first.

5. Use interesting words

• When you talk to your child, try to use interesting words. For example, ‘When I gave my friend her present, she was delighted. Delighted is a strong word for happy. I’m always delighted when you help me tidy up – what makes you delighted?’
• Try to model using adjectives (words that describe nouns, like ‘yellow’ or ‘smooth’) and adverbs (words that describe verbs, like ‘happily’ or ‘quickly’) in your day-to-day speech. For example: ‘Can you smell the freshly cut grass?’

6. Discover language on the go

Visit your local museum and ask your child to describe the pictures or exhibits they see. Take your child along with you as you head off to the bank, the grocery shop, or the post office, and see what new words you can discover.

7. Play ‘word/not word’

Another way to stretch your child’s use of new words is to play ‘word/not word’. This works by choosing a word (for example, ‘delightful’), and seeing what ideas your child associates with it. For instance, you could say to your child, ‘If I say something that you love, say “delightful”. If you don’t love it, say “not delightful”.’ Then ask your child why they responded as they did.

For example, you could try these ideas: opening presents on your birthday; eating sprouts; laughing at the puppy; eating ice cream; going to bed early; reading a book; riding your bike.

Now you can vary the game, using ‘beautiful/not beautiful’, ‘hilarious/not hilarious’, ‘exciting/not exciting’, and so on.

Things worth remembering

• Try to make time for your child to give full answers. Encourage them to answer in full sentences, or starting withÌębecause.
• It’s okay for your child to make mistakes, and it’s okay for you to correct them. A gentle way to do this is to say something back to them the correct way. For example, if your child says ‘It weren’t me!’, you could respond, ‘It wasn’t you?’.
• A good idea to boost vocabulary is to watchÌęBBC NewsroundÌęwith your child and discuss the issues involved. This is great for improving your child’s understanding of the world too!
• Teach the correct word for things as they come up in conversation (for example, ‘helmet’ instead of ‘hat’ or ‘rabbit’ instead of ‘bunny’).
• Have a simple dictionary or thesaurus to hand and explore word meanings together. Googling on your phone can also be helpful if you’re not sure.

Above all, have fun and remember that children learn at different speeds!

This article was originally published in 2019.Ìę

More from Oxford Owl

• Blog:ÌęThe word gap: How to build your child’s vocabulary at home
• Blog:ÌęCarry on reading aloud: the benefits of sharing books with older children
• Web page:ÌęVocabulary at primary school

Realise or realize, organise or organize, analyse or analyze?

It might seem strange to see the same word with different spellings. Is it -ise or -ize at the end? Which one is right? You and your child might think the answer would be found in a trusted dictionary – an Oxford dictionary perhaps. But when you look, you might find that they are both correct!

There must be more to it though because some words are never spelt with an -ize ending! To find out which words can be spelt both ways, and which ones only one way, read on.

The first thing is that a dictionary will not give the ‘correct’ answer, but it will show how words are being used and spelt. If a word has two meanings, it provides both. Some words, such as foot has many more meanings: the thing at the end of your leg, a measure of length, a unit of rhythm in a poem. It also means the bottom of a hill or the muscular organ a snail uses to get about. Depending on the dictionary you are looking in, you will find all or some of these meanings. It will let you know if a word is old fashioned, for example, thrice, meaning three times. It may also tell you where a word originally came from, and this is the reason behind the different ways of spelling the same word.

It is a common belief that -ize is an Americanism and the British is -ise: recognize rather than recognise. That if you spell with a -ize, that this is an American spelling. But for most verbs, either way is correct in British English and the -ize ending has been in use in English since the 16^th century. If the word came into English with its origin in the Greek root -izo, then it can be spelt -ize.

This spelling is used in a number of places including Oxford dictionaries. The National Curriculum opts for recognise and criticise although both of these words can be spelt with -ize.

Here are some words which are always spelt with -ise at the end:

• advertise
• advise
• comprise
• compromise
• despise
• devise
• disguise
• exercise
• improvise
• revise
• supervise
• surprise
• televise

Your dictionary will tell you when a word can be spelt in different ways. It will only give one spelling for the words above. If your dictionary is an English one, rather than American, it will also only give one spelling for analyse and paralyse. These two are always spelt like this in British English.

Overall, if this still seems confusing, the most important piece of advice to give your child is to be consistent: if you start with a ‘z’ spelling, stick to it. If you are using the ‘s’ spelling, use it all the way through your writing. And, finally, remember a dictionary can tell you so much more than the meanings of tricky words.

More from Oxford Owl

• How to find the right dictionary for your child
• How a dictionary and thesaurus can help your child discover a world of words
• Discover Oxford Children’s Dictionaries
• Dictionary Activities and Games

The Little Pod

A little podcast, where we take on big ideas, ask the big questions and hopefully offer a big load of support for all of you parents and carers out there with little ones under 5!

Explore our different episodes below, as they are released. Tackling questions like ‘Are you ready for big school?’, ‘How do you grow number confidence?’, and ‘How can you encourage creativity?’, this little podcast offers grown ups expert answers and support across a range of different topics! Watch out for new episodes each month.

What can you do to build your child’s vocabulary?

It’s a pretty simple question, with a big impact if you can do it! Knowing different words, and how to use them in lots of situations, is key to everything your child will do at school and how they communicate throughout their life.

In this episode we’re going to talk in really practical terms about different things you can do with your 3- 5 year old to build up their inner dictionary, equip them with the vocabulary they’ll need to express themselves and hopefully start growing a love of words and language that will last a lifetime!

With special guests, Jack, who has two children, and Samantha Armstrong, Head of 51șÚÁÏÍű Learning at 51șÚÁÏÍű. Sam works on Oxford Children’s Dictionaries including our range of first dictionaries which are ideal for little learners.

This episode also refers to the Big Words for Little People series, which includes a number of picture books for introducing new vocabulary to under 5s.

How can you help your child make friends?

Your child making friends is always a worry! Maybe your child has a great group of friends at nursery or reception, or at the childminder they are leaving behind, maybe they struggle to share, maybe they love to socialise until they fall asleep but maybe they’re shy!

In this episode we get into all the practical things you can do to help your child settle in and make friends at school, or a new pre-school setting; what you can do to help your child connect and why it’s so important for their development.

With special guests, Shannen, who has two children aged 3 and 8, and Poppy O’Neill, a best-selling author who specialises in children’s mental health. You can find Poppy’s book ‘Help Your Child Make Friends’ in bookshops, and explore her other work at

How can we encourage curiosity?

For every parent who’s ever heard a child ask the question ‘why?’ on repeat, it would be fair to think that children are already pretty hard wired to be curious, want to explore, and understand the world around them. And that is definitely true!

Today we want to explore how you can harness that inquisitiveness, and help your child as they puzzle over the burning questions they have about the world – whether it’s how gravity works, why a rainbow has those colours or why insects are so important, there’s so much fun to be had together!

With special guests, Alex, who is father to two young girls, and Steve Marsh from the Woodland Trust. The Woodland Trust is the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity and you can find out more about their incredible work at

How do you grow number confidence?

This episode really is a BIG one! How often do we hear ‘I’m not great with numbers’ or ‘I’m not a maths person’? If you struggled with maths yourself at school, it’s an easy trap to fall in to!

We’re going to get into why it’s important to talk numbers and counting with your little ones so they never feel the same, including how you can introduce concepts like size, shape and measurements with your little learners in fun ways that really help set them up for success in school!

With special guests, Kerry-Anne, mum to a five year old daughter, and Dr Jenni Back. Jenni is a consultant with extensive experience in teaching and learning mathematics in primary and secondary education.

How can I encourage creativity?

This time we’re talking about getting creative with your little one! Most of you have probably had a gallery of glittery artwork attached to your fridge, or your wall, at some point. But today we’ll be exploring what creativity really means.

We’ll get into why being creative is such a valuable thing to encourage, as well as all the ways creative thinking and approaches can help with communication, self-expression, independence and problem solving!

With special guests, Lauren, a mum of two from Coventry, and Victoria Jones from the Story Museum in Oxford. The Story Museum attracts up to 100,000 visitors a year and aims to enrich lives, especially young lives, through story and you can discover them at

Why should we read at home?

This podcast is all about books, and reading with your little one! Whether you read at bedtime, after nursery or school is finished, or struggle to find time at all
 you’ve probably heard lots of people saying it’s a good thing to do but we’re going to get into why, as well as how.

How do you find time? How much time is the right amount of time? Which books should you pick? And most of all
 how do you make sure it’s fun?

With special guests, picture book author Naomi Jones and 51șÚÁÏÍű Children’s Publisher, Katie Haworth

Are you ready for big school?

In this podcast we’re talking about all the things you worry about, your little ones worry about, and how you can make sure it all goes smoothly. And, even if it doesn’t, all the reasons that that’s totally fine too!

You’ve picked the school, you’ve done all your visits, you’ve read all the material, bought the uniform – but what now? How can you help and support this next, big step, for your little one?

With special guests, mum of two Jes and 51șÚÁÏÍű’ Director of Early Childhood and 51șÚÁÏÍű Education Helen Freeman