Helping Small Children Learn Big Words
Words matter. Many of the 80,000 children who start Kindergarten in Washington State each year are
already behind their peers, and the majority will never catch up. That is a huge loss for them and for our
society. We can do better. Language proficiency is closely connected with school success. Understanding
and being able to use more words helps children not only academically, but in interacting effectively with
their peers and with adults.
But how do we help expand a young child’s vocabulary? One effective way is to introduce the right kind
of new words. Isabel Beck, Margaret McKeown and Linda Kucan have developed a useful framework for
doing this. Simply put, they divide new words into three tiers:
 Tier 1 These are the most basic, common words. They are the ones young children will learn on
their own, almost no matter what. Tier 1 words are adequate, up to a point, for spoken language.
Examples include: animal, baby, big, bird, car, eat, happy, like, sad, see, sleep, try.
 Tier 2 These are frequently occurring words in mature speech and most writing. Typically, young
children will only pick them up through repeated exposure. Tier 2 words are non-specialist
vocabulary, crucial for children to master in order to speak and read effectively. Examples include:
appreciate, attempt, coincidence, consume, depressed, elated, enormous, fortunate, infant, mammal,
notice, retriever, slumber, vehicle.
 Tier 3 These are specialized words and “shop talk,” the stuff of particular occupations and pursuits.
They are of low general frequency. Children and adults alike tend to learn them when, and only
when, the need arises. Examples include: bucolic, dorsal, intermontane, isotope, lateralization, loath,
masticate, meiosis, mitosis, proximal, tetrameter, viscous.
Tier 2 words are “where it’s at” in helping young children expand their vocabularies. Often, adults talk
with and write for young children, using Tier 1 words almost exclusively. It is better, though, when adults
deliberately and selectively introduce young children to a sprinkling of Tier 2 words related to the kids’ own
lives, experiences and interests. Tier 2 words add precision and reach to a child’s thought and self-expression.
Children can readily learn to speak of animals that “hibernate” (not just sleep) in the winter; of feeling
“determined” or “reluctant” (not just wanting or not wanting) to do something; of having “observed” or
“noticed” (not just seen) a “barrier” (not just something in the way).
With toddlers and preschoolers, it is crucial to always provide a context for a new Tier 2 word. This is
recognized in the Toddler and Pre-K CLASS assessments, which in the Language Modeling dimension tie
using advanced language to connecting new words with familiar words and ideas.
Suppose, for instance, that an early learning provider wants to help children learn the word “swoop.”
Perhaps the word occurs in, or is applicable to, a story book featuring a hunting bird. There are many ways
to make the word come alive:
 Use the word correctly, in context. “The hawk swooped from above and caught the unsuspecting
mouse.”
 Ask a child or children to repeat it.
 Explain what the word means. “Swooping is when a creature descends, or comes down, suddenly
and quickly.”
 If the meaning of the word permits, give the children a chance to (en)act it. “Let’s swoop with our
hands. Put one of your hands high in the air and, when we count to 3, make it swoop to the
ground.”
 Use it/talk about it often in the next few days, until the word has “taken” with the children (that is,
they clearly understand the word and are saying it themselves). “Remember when we got caught in
the sudden, heavy rain while we were out on our walk? It was as though the raindrops were trying to
swoop down on us.”