Best practice for teaching new vocabulary is…
80% core AND 20% fringe vocabulary according to research by Bean A., Cargill L., & Lyle S. (2019).
I had a big “aha” movement in March wherein I realized one of the little ones I am working with was not progressing as fast as I would have liked her to in speech therapy. If you know me, you know I try my best to be research-based with therapy approach to do what I think is best practice for the kids I work with.
I was thinking and thinking what to do to help “hook” her into AAC. Then it dawned on me I WAS MISSING THE 20 PERCENT FRINGE VOCABULARY! I had been so caught up on teaching her core words that I missed the fridge vocabulary that motivated her to use those core words 🤦♀️ Luckily she picked those fridge words up rather quickly (phew)
I’m pointing out my teaching error because there has been a HUGE emphasis on learning and implementing core words lately, which is AWESOME 👏 and NEEDED but let’s not forget those 20% fridge words too!
Definitions
Core Words: Words that make up most of speech across the lifespan consisting of mainly verbs, pronouns (ex. Go, Stop, Help)
Fringe Words: Nouns and types of words that are used less frequently and mostly in context of an event or situation (ex. Ball, Book, Red)
Reference
Bean A., Cargill L., & Lyle S. (2019).
https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2019_ajslp-18-0041
