‫In this Alt's vocabulary lesson, we're going to look at some key language in vocabulary for the common
‫topic of childhood.
‫It's a language that you might read or hear, but it's also language that you can use in the speaking
‫and writing sections of the text.
‫So let's take a look at these eight key phrases for the topic of childhood.
‫Infant.
‫Adolescence.
‫Toddler, independent, sibling, upbringing, youth and adopt.
‫So these are eight quite high level pieces of vocabulary around the topic of childhood.
‫Let's look at our first piece of vocabulary, which is infant.
‫And here it is.
‫Infant and infant is a very young child, probably between the age of one to four.
‫As an infant, I was very cheeky, my parents said I was quite naughty.
‫So that is a quick example of infant in use.
‫And I've highlighted this word cheeky.
‫It's an adjective to describe usually a child that is a little bit naughty.
‫I remember my time at infant school very clearly, it was a special time in my life, so we can also
‫have an infant school, which is usually, again, for very young children in the early years of their
‫lives.
‫OK, infant.
‫And we have a sibling, a really great word to discuss or describe whether you have a brother or a sister,
‫a sibling.
‫I have one sibling, a brother called Simon, who is two years younger than me.
‫I think it's great for children to have at least one sibling to play with and grow old together.
‫So this extra phrase Grow Old is a common collocation to talk about getting older.
‫We grew old together or I am growing old.
‫OK, sibling.
‫So that is a word to discuss or describe a brother or a sister or a sibling.
‫And here we have the word adolescence, it's a time in your life when you are still very young.
‫And here we have in my adolescence, I was afraid of nothing.
‫As I grew older, I became more careful.
‫And the next example, children develop rapidly during their adolescence.
‫Very similar words to sort of infant or childhood, but it's a slightly more advanced way to describe
‫childhood, adolescence.
‫Upbringing.
‫So when you talk about somebodies upbringing, you were talking about how their parents raised them,
‫for example, if a child didn't have a very good upbringing, they might have had a challenging childhood
‫with less support from their family.
‫Let's look at some examples.
‫James had a great upbringing.
‫His family cared for him very much.
‫So in this example, James was looked after very well.
‫His parents cared for him.
‫He had a great upbringing.
‫A good upbringing should give lots of love and support to a child.
‫OK, there we have some examples for upbringing.
‫And our next piece of vocabulary for childhood is toddler.
‫Another way to describe a very young child and usually toddler is reserved for children who are just
‫starting to try and walk or crawl or move around.
‫They're not quite as still as they once were as very small babies, toddlers.
‫My friend's baby is still a toddler.
‫She's just started to crawl so that we have a very small baby that is just beginning to move and crawl
‫independently.
‫The balloon park was packed with toddlers, there's a collection of very small babies, and I'm sure
‫that would be noisy.
‫OK, our next piece of vocabulary is youth.
‫So you can use this to describe a child.
‫You can call them a youth.
‫It's a noun.
‫There are many youths that hang around the town center.
‫It's quite intimidating, intimidating or scary.
‫So there's lots of youth that are hanging around and it's quite scary.
‫As a youth, I played many sports and even won a few trophies.
‫This is actually quite a common phrase as a youth, it's often used to begin talking about your childhood
‫so you could try it, too, as a youth.
‫I used to play lots of sports as a youth.
‫Next up, we have independent, which means doing something on your own.
‫I didn't really become independent until I was around 13 years old.
‫Children these days are much more independent than before.
‫And finally, we have a dot, which means often parents will, if they can't have children biologically
‫of their own, they will adopt or take care of a baby, usually from a young age.
‫When I was two years old, my parents adopted my sister, who was still a tiny baby.
‫When I'm older, I would like to adopt a baby, as I think it's a great thing to do.
‫OK, so there is some key vocabulary for the topic of childhood.
‫Try and use it in your own speaking and writing.
‫And if it's used well, I'm sure it will help you to score extra marks.