A child's ability to learn new words is nothing short of phenomenal. For example, an 8 year old child learns about 3600 new words per year. By the time that same child reaches full adulthood, this fast pace of learning has fallen to the leisurely cruising speed of only 20 new words per year.

So how do young children learn so quickly?

There's no doubt that there are many factors at play. Nevertheless, we can learn a lot by watching young children and how they approach the problem of leaning new words.

Young children don't learn new words by simply looking them up in a dictionary. Sometimes they ask grown-ups, but more often they simply infer meanings from context.They figure out a word's meaning by paying attention to how it is used.

How to copy the "child" approach to learning words

You need to make your mind open to new words by actively seeking to understand them. You can do this in a number of ways:

1. When you encounter an unfamiliar word, stop! Now, try your best to figure out the meaning of the word using it's context.
   
   
2. Don't be afraid to ask others what words mean (children do this all the time). I have found that when I do this I almost never forget the word because I can relate it to a social situation.
   
   
3. Use a learning tool such as Ultimate Vocabulary that will help to open your mind to new words. In much the same way that a child is automatically receptive to new words, using Ultimate Vocabulary, an adult can easily be just as receptive and learn 10 new words per day.