I have a two year old daughter named Sarah. (And a 4 month old daughter named Rebecca, but as she cannot talk yet, she doesn't enter into this) Anyway, my daughter Sarah has a few very cute and very incorrect speech habits. I think (and my wife agrees) they are extremely adorable and we will miss them when she out grows them, but we have family members who insist my wife and I correct them now so as to not stunt her learning process, or embarass her when she goes to school. We are of the opinion that she will grow out of them on her own, as she already has some of them, and that we would like to enjoy them as part of the magic of childhood, and not worry to much about them. A few examples of what the heck I am talking about are: She calls tennis balls 'cannon balls.' No idea why. She calls the living room the, 'Lilly room,' I love that. Her sneakers are called her, 'stinkers.' that is great, in my opinion. There are a ton of these type things, my wife and I think we should enjoy them while they last, she will outgrow them naturally, and we will miss them when they are gone. She has already outgrown some of them, like she used to pronounce, "careful," as, "see-cull," which I thought was adorable, but if I tell her now to, "be see-cull," she will say something like, "no daddy, be careful." So I think she will outgrow all these in due time, and I want to let her say these things while she is only two, and honestly, I really enjoy them. Some of our relatives insist we should be correcting her each time she misspeaks, and try to correct this type thing as soon as possible. I would like the opinions of others on this board, should we be correcting her, or just let her say these things and eventually outgrow them? I would also like to know if you have kids of your own, what sorts of these things did they say? Thank you for your opinions.
By all means let her say it..she will grow out of it and then you will find yourself trying to catch her saying it cuz it brought you such joy! My son said "where it is" instead of where is it..I would reply in the correct question only to have him repeate it...let em be babies for God's sake..enjoy them..they grow up so fast! RickieB
hahaha my friends little brother says lellow for yellow and i remember when I was 6 or 7 my friend would say it was froggy outside and we should stay inside and eat corn pop. To this day, we laugh at it and enjoy it.
Your inlaws worry too much. If your daughter is still talking like this at 18, then you may have a problem. "Cannonballs". I like it. It may catch on.
I joke around with my little one with words like "Balentimes" instead of Valentines, or Baliball for Volleyball (Baliball because it was invented in Bali), also lie-berry for library.
My daughter struggled to learn English when my son learned it very quickly. People learn their language skills at different rates. I sometimes wish my daughter didn't talk so much now
Thanks for all the responses. You have all confirmed my opinion that there is no need to correct her. She is a very smart child, she began using full sentences a long time ago, loves books, and is starting to read some words already. I don't think we are stunting her by letting her keep these phrases for awhile. Thank you all for confirming what I suspected!
Her self-esteem is more important than your relatives opinion. If you continually correct your child, she'll become self-conscious and have less confidence speaking. She'll eventually learn the correct way to pronounce words on her own and take pride in having done so. Relatives can be a pain. Don't worry, they eventually die.
I wouldn't correct her, but at the same time, don't reinforce the incorrect speech. In other words, don't start asking her if she wants to go into the "lilly room" or she'll never understand and naturally correct herself. Your post reminds me of the Fed-Ex commercial... "French benefits"
I'd be careful. Your 4 month old daugher will pick up the same speech patterns when starts talking as your other daughter. My one little brother had a speech problem, and my little brother that was one year younger developed it too. Once it cleared up in the older one through speech lessons, it cleared up in the younger one too.
I understand what you are saying, and agree with the concept, but I am not sure it applies in this case. I don't really think my daughter has a speech problem, she speaks clearly, uses multi-syllabic words, constructs full sentences, does not lisp or stutter, etc...she just has some funny names for things. I think it is mostly about being two, (she just turned two this month) and all that goes with that. Since starting this thread I had a conversation with my Mother-in-law, who is not one of the ones insisting we correct her, who is a just retired school teacher with a Master's Degree in education, who spent the last 10 years of her career teaching special education/special needs children in second and third grade. I asked her about this and she says Sarah is just fine, is in her opinion well ahead of the curve for her age linguistically, and we should tell the relatives, (all on my side of the family ) who think we need to correct her to, "go pound sand." So between my own instinct, the opinions of those on this board, and the opinion of my MIL, I am no longer at all concerned with her speech, and will tell my well intentioned but incorrect relatives to find something or someone else to worry about! Thanks again!
I think that's a very important distinction. It's not a speech defect or impediment, it's just the cute way little kids communicate and are learning. And I think laughing with them, and letting them know (as Danr said) that words can be played with and language can be fun, is a great gift you can give your children. By all means, let them know that there is a "correct" way of naming things, but let them learn it by listening to you and laughing with you.
I have an aunt who always talked to her children in baby-talk - now that they are all grown up, all 4 have serious speech impediments, and some visit speech therapists.
Tell your relatives to mind their own business! Regards, CraigG Answer: one. Question: How many psychics does it take to change a light bulb.
