When playing with your child you can work on their vocabulary by commenting on their play.
To make sure that you are using lots of different types of words, it can be helpful to think of three categories – object words, action words and describing words.
For example, if your child is playing with play dough you might say:
“you’re squeezing!”
“you have the red dough”
“is it soft?”
If you’re child is playing with a train set you might say:
“the engine!”
“the yellow one”
“you’re driving!”
If you are setting up an activity you can have a think about the vocabulary that might be relevant beforehand and jot it down. This will help you make sure that you’re modelling a range of different types of words during the play. Here are some examples of different object words, action words and describing words:
| Object words | Action words | Describing words |
| Cat Dog Spoon Chair Table Bottle Milk Brick Dolly House | Brushing Eating Cooking Playing Feeding Pouring Building Dressing Jumping Driving | Furry Big Small Smooth Wet Dry Sharp Soft Scaly Hard |
Click ‘Download this activity’ for some vocabulary ideas for common play activities.
