Why, Johnny!

Little pitchers not only have big ears, but they fill up faster than grownups think they do. At least, so says Robert H. Seashore, Northwestern University psychologist. After testing vocabularies of Illinois public-school children for more than six years, he is convinced that the average first-grader knows about ten times as many words as he is supposed to.

First-grade texts, he says, use about 2,500 words. The figure was arrived at by counting the words one set of children used over a two-week period. But, argued Seashore, a kid uses words as the occasion demands. Had he gone to the zoo during that two-week period, he would have thrown in what he knew about animals. If he looked at a picture magazine or listened to a radio serial during that time, he might have used words that would not otherwise occur to him. The modern kid uses a lot of words picked up from movies, comic books and newspapers, says Dr. Seashore. He estimates that the average kid starting school can identify about 17,000 basic words (e.g., loyal), and from them derive the meaning of about 6,000 more words e.g., loyalist).

The catch in it is that Dr. Seashore is talking about what he calls "recognition vocabulary"; being able to use all the words, and use them exactly, is something else again.

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