How children remember new English words

Spread-out practice beats cramming

• The spacing effect is one of the most robust findings in memory research: the same amount of study, split into sessions with gaps between them, is remembered longer than one big session.
• Vlach, Sandhofer and Kornell (2008) found the effect in 3-year-olds too: children learned new categories of objects better when examples were spaced out, even though spacing made the task a little harder.
• In practice: instead of 30 minutes once a week, do 5 minutes a day, and come back to old words after a day or two.

Ask them to recall, not just repeat

• Ask questions that make your child bring the word back: "Which animal says meow?", "Show me the dog." Recalling a word helps it stick better than hearing it again.
• A little forgetting before review is fine. Do not worry if your child needs a few seconds.
• Vary the question: point, listen and choose, say the name, find the real thing at home. Each is another route into memory.

Link words to several senses

• Pictures: one clear picture for each word.
• Sound: hear a clear model voice many times.
• Movement: "jump" means jump, "elephant" means an elephant trunk. Children remember words with actions very quickly.
• Real life: take words off the screen, like finding something "red" in the room or counting stairs.

Fewer words, learned well: six a week

• Children aged 4–6 do best with small sets of 4–6 words on one topic. Each Word Island pack also has six words.
• Day 1: meet the six words, listen and point.
• Days 2 and 3: play a game or a picture-card game with the same six.
• Day 4: print the flashcards or worksheet for the topic and play off-screen.
• Day 5: recall all six, then add new words next week. Bring last week's words back now and then.

Try it with six animals

Tap to hear, then act out each animal.

• catCat ears and a meow.
• dogWag your tail.
• fishSwim with your hands.
• rabbitHop on two feet.
• elephantMake a trunk with your arm.
• lionA big roar.

How English for Fun does this

• Word Island splits 162 words into packs of six; each pack uses several different games with the same six words, and the child meets all the pictures again at the end.
• Letter Island and Number Island bring back the previous day's letters and numbers when your child returns.
• Every topic page has audio, flashcards and a printable worksheet for review off-screen.

Sources

1. Vlach, H. A., Sandhofer, C. M., Kornell, N. (2008). The spacing effect in children's memory and category induction. Cognition, 109(1)