VOCABULARY

1
VOCABULARY

• Children use a process called fast mapping to
  learn new words.
• After a year or so of painstakingly learning one
  word at a time, the speedy but not precise way of
  learning new words is called fast mapping. This
  is where children learn new words by connecting
  them to other words they already know, and store
  the words in categories.

2

• Childrens books help with fast mapping by
  organizing words and concepts into categories,
  and by repeating the words.

3

• Rate of increase in the preschool period,
  vocabulary increases exponentially.
• Children typically produce their first thirty
  words at a rate of three to five words per month.
• The same children then learn their next words at
  a rate of ten to twenty words per day.

4

• By the age of six, the average child has a
  lexicon containing more than ten thousand words.