There are so many words out there! Choosing which words to focus on first can be a bit overwhelming. This post is all about power words, how they help your child’s language development, and how to bring them into your child’s day-to-day life.
What are Power Words?
Power words, also known as core words, are a set of words that we frequently use in our everyday lives. They account for about 60-80% of the words we use each day. They can help with communicating wants and needs, reducing frustration and building meaningful connections.
Power words can vary for each child as they are also influenced by cultural differences, special interest words, and your home environment.
Related Post: 2 Ways to Develop Language
Why are Power Words Important?
Power words help your child’s language development because they can be used across many different contexts. This means that they can be used to help you with expressing a wide range of thoughts and ideas. Let’s start with a quick example by looking at the power word “get“.
- It can be used for:
- – ‘Get the car’,
- – ‘She’s getting the milk’,
- – ‘Let’s get going’,
- – ‘I’ll get it’,
- – ‘Can we get it?’
Power words can be a great place to start when you’re expanding your child’s single words and short phrases. If your child is using a lot of single words or short phrases, you could expand their phrases by modelling a power word + their word. For example, if your child says “car”, you could say “car is big” or “car… go!” or “Stop there car!”
Balance is Key
Power words that can be used across contexts are only part of our vocabulary. Balancing these words with special interest words and highly motivating words is key as it helps with building meaningful interactions.
It’s important to remember to follow your child’s lead and their interests when choosing words, phrases, gestalts and other language development goals.
Here are Some Examples
These are general examples of power words and how you could incorporate them into your daily routine but they may not be the best words for every family.
One Power Word across Many Activities
Here’s one way we can focus on using power words in your child’s daily routine. Focus on one power word and model it across many different activities that your child is interested in. You could try one of these below:
Power Words in Daily Activities
Another way we can incorporate power words is by focusing on one everyday activity and modelling 1 to 2 core words during that time.
Remember to meet your child at their level and tailor the focus of the activity to your child’s needs. If your child is learning the sequence of steps, stay with that target. Once it becomes more automatic then shift the focus to include a couple of power words. You could try one of these daily activities below:
Power Words in Fun Activities
Power words could be incorporated into an activity your child is interested in. Pick 1 to 2 core words to include in their chosen activity. Follow your child’s lead and see where the interaction takes you. You could extend their single words and short phrases by adding in a power word. Here are some activities:
This post was all about power words, how they support language development and how to include them into your daily routine. What are 10 words that would give your child the most power to communicate?
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