Using 'rare' words at mealtimes can enlarge children's vocabulary Using 'rare' words at mealtimes can enlarge children's vocabulary For decades, experts have urged American families to eat meals together as a means of enhancing communication. Doing so may improve their preschoolers' language skills. Parents can enhance their children's vocabulary by the way they talk to them during mealtime conversation, said Diane E. Beals, Ed.D., assistant professor of education. High scores on the PPVT, a standard vocabulary test, have been linked to children's later abilities to read. Beals and Tabors define rare words as those that preschoolers are unlikely to know at age 3 or 4.
Mealtime conversations tend to be longer.
There's a broad range of topics that can come up at mealtimes that wouldn't necessarily be introduced in other kinds of settings. Talk on one subject for an extended period of time gives a child a chance to think. The more you get kids to think, the better it is for them in terms of their linguistic development. That's what using rare words can do. It challenges them.