My Question of the Day for 22 June 2010 – UPDATED
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My Question of the Day: Children learn to speak based on what they hear people saying around them. It’s one of the reasons a parent and/or parents will hire a caregiver who speaks a different language, so the child(ren) can be fluent in his/her/their native tongue and another almost from birth. With that in mind, at what age should we stop using “baby talk” with children?
My 2 Cents: I’m not a parent, but I’ve provided supervisor for other people’s children, and baby talk was out of the question for me.
Even if the parent(s) did it, I never did.
Children are sponges when it comes to information, and they often mimic adult speech. Speak to them properly, and they’ll learn to speak properly.
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We never did baby talk . My boyfriend never allowed baby talk. Its a good thing because our son pronounces his words properly. He uses correct english and no slang or anything like that. He’s developing rapidly and I’m so proud of him.
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LikeDislikeI think by 1 years of age. I don’t even think baby talk should be used constantly before then. It’s cute once in a while but definitely unnecessary since kids learn best when you speak to them in complete sentences. Still sometimes you can’t help it but I’d say around 1 or whenever a kid utters his.her first word!
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LikeDislikeI used “baby talk” sparingly with my two kids, only when playing and trying to get them to laugh. IMO babies learn how to pronounce words from the people around them. Its important that babies be given the stepping stools to help them succeed in life.
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LikeDislikeNo baby talk!!! Speak normal to children they will learn to speak real words much SOONER!!
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LikeDislikeThere is no one in my immediate family who has used baby talk with my youngest. Now that she’s three, we get mad if she tries to pull that…
Her verbal skills and reasoning are above average, and she continually surprises me with the complexity of her thoughts and communication skills.
I would say never talk baby talk to a baby because they are on a fast track to growing up and baby talk will only hinder that growth.
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LikeDislikeDefinitely don’t believe in baby talk. I may have adjusted my tone to soothe but the words were just the same. Have to agree with MissMeandI that I believe this lead to my 14 year old daughter NEVER shutting up. She spoke clearly at an early age and hasn’t stopped yet
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LikeDislikeI’ve never used the “gaa-gaa, goo-goo” baby talk with my child. Since she was in the womb I used regular words and spoke the way I would regularly speak. (I don’t do other languages, so I wouldn’t hire someone to speak a different language to my child, but that’s just me) She’s never heard the silly baby talk from anyone in our family….Perhaps that’s why I can’t get her to shut up now! I shoulda did that whole “goo-goo, gaa-gaa” talk till she was 20! ((LOL))
To answer the question: Don’t even start it…it’s just not conducive to the child’s learning process later.
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LikeDislikeTrue story: one of my clients have a baby that’s 3 years old. She literally sings every time she speaks. I have to adapt to her way of speaking, and that’s hard to do. So instead of saying “how’s your day?” it sounds “house your way?” Her mother mostly sings to her to prevent her from getting upset at simple things, so this child may grow up with “Melody” as a nickname.
Another client is bi-lingual and with her son, they have one our of only speaking Spanish each day. They tried it around me, but I get more annoyed (because it was slowing down the work day and eating up my minutes).
With this in mind, I’ll say speaking in proper tones will give your child an advantage in the long run. After all, I did a lot of unlearning when I was younger…
… and I’m still unlearning bad habits now.
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LikeDislikeBaby talk is cute for a little while, but as a parent of a child who has received speech therapy since the age of 3, I strongly discourage ‘baby talk’. Although ‘baby talk’ wasn’t the culprit in our case, I still discourage it. My twin sons had a language all their own and although one of them transitioned very easily, the other…well, not so easily. Speech and language skills are learned and we should teach children how to speak and enunciate properly. As for me and my family, lesson learned.
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LikeDislikeNever really did start that with any of mine. I found that using regular language, along with visuals or demonstrative gestures worked just fine. A little patience and I had very little trouble getting them to expand their vocabulary. What I DID find troubling was getting the first child to stop using sounds/speech pattern of a certain English show where they spoke ‘gibberish’. I had to cut her off from watching that and the children that came henceforth were not allowed to watch any programs where the characters didn’t speak an actual REAL LIFE LANGUAGE. Spanish? I am cool with. French? Even better. Gibberish (Tele Tubbies and their ilk?) No.
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LikeDislikeI never did *gagagooogoo* with my daughter, and I refuse to do it with other people’s children. If a baby is cute, I do the Rosie O’Donnell =cootiewootie= thing with mostly tone of voice, exaggerated gestures and facial expressions. Otherwise, full, real words.
This connects to how we expect children to behave. When I see a child throw a temper tantrum, I say calmly “you know real words, when you’re ready to tell me what’s the problem I’ll be over there” and walk away, after making sure there are no injuries and no dangerous objects nearby.
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LikeDislikeI don’t believe in using baby talk at all. We can use soft, playful tones that soothe a child without purposefully mispronouncing or otherwise butchering words. We know children learn by mimicking our language. Why would we want to teach them the wrong thing, only for them to have to unlearn it all later?
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