This resource allows you to record your own reflections after watching the video below.
Video transcript
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Researcher in early years English and literacy
The QKLG promotes children's language capabilities including vocabulary. In the learning and development area of Communicating, the significant learnings includes expands vocabulary.
The research says that the number of words that the children have, and also the range of words, that means, you know, the total like diversity of the words that they have, really impacts on their later literacy success.
Some vocabulary knowledge develops incidentally, other word knowledge requires intentional teaching.
Kindergarten teacher and child
[Teacher holding dried orange slices to the light and the child is pointing] darker than this one? And darker than this one? The darkest.
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Children can benefit when teachers and educators engage in language conversations, which includes really rich language experiences.
When thinking about planning vocabulary, teachers and educators can kind of introduce everyday words like play, dog, boy, mum, car. Now these are words that children would already know, but they are really important to intentionally teach for children who are English language learners.
Kindergarten teacher
[reading from text] thought for a moment, maybe I can't draw but I can sign my name.
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
So when children are exposed to lots of words in context, it helps them develop a broader vocabulary, and that's really important say for when teachers and educators are reading stories to children, and by reading stories to children, you're also developing and broadening their vocabularies as well.
Teachers and educators can think about introducing words to children that are ones that they perhaps find in children's literature because children's literature contains a different type of grammar, a different type of language to what they'd use in everyday conversation. So, the words, for example, that you'd want to think about, preparing a child friendly definition for before the reading are words like magnified or grasped, or quivering or expensive, fierce, magnificent and or smashed.
Drama is another way of providing definitions for children. So, for example, if you've got the word prancing, you might actually demonstrate through drama by galloping and showing them what prancing looks like.
Kindergarten teacher and children
[teacher reading text and making a mixing action] And that says mix, what are we mixing this week? Cake!
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Also what I think is really important is actually asking the children to come up with their own definitions as well.
Kindergarten teacher and children
[teacher reading text and wriggling on seat] What does it mean if you're glued to a chair? You can't get up [child response]. Yeah, it's like you're stuck with glue, you're stuck on the chair.
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Another way that teachers and educators can support children in building their vocabulary is through introducing books around the same topic. For example, if the children have got an interest in space, you would read books maybe about the planets, a book on satellites or a book on astronauts or a book on meteorites.
Teachers and educators can help children in understanding and deepening the meaning of new words that they're learning through play. One example if you're going on a nature walk, you'd know that you might be coming across lizards and leaves, so you'd actually already preplan that definition. So for the lizard, a reptilian and leaves, you might introduce the word foliage.
Kindergarten teacher and child
[teacher describing the child's drawing] Bigger, bigger, whoa, is that your biggest?
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
Children can be supported to understand what words mean, through a range of play based language experiences. But these experiences need to be relevant to the children and also your context that you're working in.
When building everyday language, for example describing shapes, you could introduce language such as point, side, face, angle.
Kindergarten teacher and children
[teacher repeating the child's description of squares] They do, they have four points on them, they also have how many sides?
Associate Professor Stacey Campbell
I think what's really interesting is, what I would call, interesting words. One of them would be say symmetrical.
So first of all, you'd want to provide a child friendly definition for the word symmetrical. What you could do is maybe, perhaps have the shape of a circle there, have a line drawn down the middle. And explain to the children that that's symmetrical, that both sides are the same. Then next what you would do is actually use the word symmetrical in context.
By teachers and educators incorporating visuals, photographs, gestures, and also repetition all children have the opportunity to develop vocabulary.
It's really important for teachers and educators to focus in on intentionally teaching vocabulary because when they're actually really focused in on thinking about the words that they're using with children, so helping them to develop a wide range of words, as well as the number of words, really supports children in developing a wider vocabulary, which leads to lifelong literacy success.
- Last updated:
- 24 February 2026
