Words are the building blocks of communication!
Every time your child learns a new word, they gain another way to understand the world, share their thoughts and feelings, and connect with the people around them.
As a child nears their second birthday, they should start to combine words when speaking (e.g., “doggie go” or “give mummy”). In order to combine words, children need to understand and use different types of words including action words (verbs). Many children learn a variety of word types naturally through their interactions with the people around them, however some children need help expanding their vocabulary.
If your child needs support learning and using different word types, being intentional about the words you use with your child can help them build the vocabulary they need. Use this list of early action words to ‘jump’ start your child’s vocabulary1:
- bite
- blow
- break
- carry
- catch
- clean
- climb
- close
- colour
- cook
- crawl
- cry
- cut
- dance
- draw
- drink
- drive
- drop
- dry
- eat
- fall
- feed
- find
- give
- go
- help
- hide
- hit
- jump
- kick
- kiss
- like
- look
- love
- open
- play
- push
- read
- ride
- run
- see
- sing
- sit
- sleep
- spill
- stand
- stop
- swim
- swing
- throw
- tickle
- wait
- walk
- wash
- watch
- wipe
- write
If you would like more information about children’s language development or speech and language therapy with South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy, please get in touch. Follow us on Facebook for more speech, language and feeding tips and sign up for South Lakes Speech & Language Therapy’s newsletter if you would like new posts sent directly to your inbox.
- Adapted from: Fenson, L., Marchman, V. A., Thal, D. J., Dale, P.S., Reznick, J. S., & Bates, E. (2007). MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI): Words and Gestures. Brookes Publishing: Baltimore, MD. ↩︎