Unlocking Your Child's Potential: The Power of Vocabulary at Every Age

At Mrs. Wordsmith, we're passionate about empowering children with the vocabulary they need to thrive. Because a rich vocabulary isn't just about scoring high on tests; it's about unlocking comprehension, expressing yourself, and building confidence in communication.

Why Does Vocabulary Matter?

Research consistently demonstrates a strong link between vocabulary size and academic success. Studies [1] show that a broader vocabulary directly correlates with higher scores in reading age, reading comprehension, and verbal reasoning. Why? Because the more words you understand, the better placed you are to: 

• Decipher complex texts: Vocabulary is the foundation of reading comprehension. When children understand the words they encounter, they can grasp the meaning of the text more easily.
• Improve academic performance: A strong vocabulary is essential for success in all subjects, from science and mathematics to history and literature [2]. This is because a strong vocabulary helps to unlock the content of all these different subjects. 
• Communicate effectively: A wider vocabulary allows children to express themselves more clearly, confidently, and persuasively.
• Boost overall confidence: As children master new words, their confidence grows, making them more eager to read increasingly complex texts and express themselves articulately.

Beyond Rote Memory

Learning new words shouldn't feel like a chore, but it often can – particularly when it’s approached without a sense of playfulness. That's why at Mrs. Wordsmith, we inject fun into every aspect of our approach to vocabulary learning: 

• Contextual Learning: We present words within engaging contexts, using hilarious illustrations and relatable scenarios to help children understand what words mean and how they’re used within a sentence. 
• Bite-sized Learning: When it comes to teaching vocabulary, we adopt a “little and often” approach. That’s why our books and Word Tag video game are designed to be used for just a few minutes every day,  turning vocabulary learning into a fun and accessible habit.
• Gamified Learning: Whether it’s with our video games such as Word Tag or our card games like Vocabularious, we make vocabulary learning genuinely enjoyable. A combination of interactive exercises, and rewards keep children motivated and engaged as they broaden their knowledge of words.

The Mrs. Wordsmith Advantage

So, what words should your child be learning at each stage of their development?We've built a comprehensive database of over 60,000 words, drawn from a variety of sources, including:

• Age-Appropriate Books: We read thousands of popular children's books to identify the vocabulary they need to understand and enjoy these stories. From "The Chronicles of Narnia" to "Harry Potter", we’ve made sure that all the key and tricky words appear within our products – that way, children will be familiar by the time they encounter them in school.
• Academic Texts: Our products include words that frequently appear on major exams and in subject-specific texts, such as the SATs, CATs, 7+, 8+, 11+ and the SSATs.
• Curriculum-Aligned Word Lists: Our database incorporates national word lists and curriculum standards to ensure that children are learning the vocabulary they need to succeed in school. So whenever children pick up one of our books or log into one of our video games, they’ll be encountering the types of words they will come across during their lessons.

By cross-tagging and comparing words, we can filter words down to the most useful lists. We make sure to capture useful information about the words within our database such as how difficult they are, the age at which they’re usually acquired, and how frequently they appear in different contexts. To select which words are the most useful ones for children to learn, we take all of this data into account alongside information about which words appear commonly in literature and exams.We also work with partners such as Lexile as well as language specialists such as Professor Ted Briscoe [3] at Cambridge University [4] and Professor Susan Neuman [5] at NYU [6].

Unlock Your Child's Vocabulary Potential

Ready to embark on a vocabulary adventure with your child? Explore our range of products, including:

• Storyteller’s Word a Day: This hilariously illustrated book contains definitions, information and data that teach your child 180 words to liven up their stories.
• Storyteller’s Card Game: Discover 300 word illustrated cards, 200 story prompts and endless hours of word-based fun!
• Word Tag: Designed for kids aged 8-13, our vocabulary video game can help your child acquire 1,000 new words a year with just 20 minutes of daily gameplay.
• Vocabularious: This fun card game helps to build word understanding and awareness, with child-friendly definitions and word pairs to show kids how words are commonly used.
• Epic Life: This range of engaging books help young learners uncover new words through our beautifully illustrated books that have interactive exercises sprinkled throughout.

REFERENCES

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S088520141730237X#:~:text=Early%20and%20later%20reading%20and,comprehension%20performance%20at%20age%2016.

[2] https://www.bell-foundation.org.uk/resources/great-ideas/building-vocabulary/

[3] https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~ejb1/

[4] https://www.cam.ac.uk/

[5] https://steinhardt.nyu.edu/people/susan-neuman

[6] https://www.nyu.edu/