Big-Kid Baby Talk
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Friday, September 03, 2010 8:39 PM
My son was a late bloomer verbally, but he’s finally having an explosion of language and we are loving it.
“Up!” he’ll shout, then swipe his chest with his hand and add politely, “pee?” and we applaud and exclaim at his cuteness. (And pick him up, of course.)
When he’s trying to worm his way out from between a piece of furniture and the wall, he’ll get my attention by yelling, “Tuck! Tuck!” and as I help him get un-“tuck” I smile because my son is communicating, and it’s adorable!
But Blaise’s new verbal abilities have an interesting side effect. Actually, I suspect it’s a side effect of our excited response. As he progresses, his sister seems to have regressed.
Not that she - who has always been exceptionally verbal - is having any real trouble expressing herself. You wouldn’t know it, though, if you heard the way she talks sometimes.
“Mama!” she’ll yell at me. “Ih! Ceem! Ih! Ceem!” I know she’s asking for frozen confection, but I have to pretend I don’t understand, because I don’t want to encourage her.
When she was two, strangers commented on her excellent pronunciation skills. Now that she’s almost four, she’s finally talking in a way only her mother can interpret.
For the first week or so of Camilla’s babbling, I was mystified. I’ve heard of little ones mimicking big kids, but not the other way around. Why would my daughter want to talk like a toddler when talking her normal way was so much more effective?
Then it occurred to me: her brother is getting praised for shouting semi-intelligible syllables. Perhaps she imagined she would get praised for doing the same thing.
So I’m trying a new strategy. When she babbles, I ask her to use real words and sentences. And then when she does, I make a big deal of it. “Listen to Camilla! She speaks so clearly!”
At least, I’m trying to do that. Sometimes I get so frustrated by baby talk that I forget to praise the big-kid talk. But I’m hopeful that if I can develop a good habit in this area, so can she.
This will work, right?
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