Baby words or proper words?

Candi - posted on 03/08/2011

I always used proper words with my kids and never shortened them. I would sayi t then my child would repeat it the best they could. My youngest daughter at age 3 could pronounce dinosaur names that I could barely say. I hate baby talk and never used it and never will. I also hate when people get a real high pitch to their voice when speaking to a baby. They are people too, you don't have to sound like an idiot to talk to them

Chatty - posted on 05/04/2010

Haha! Ur right....thanks! Super funny!

Tanya - posted on 04/30/2010

@ dana kindergarten cop

Brandy - posted on 04/30/2010

My sister in law is a speech pathologist and baby talk is very important to a child's developing speech. You don't need to actually change the words but slowing words down and emphasizing each syllable and consonant in a higher voice does help them learn. I have always used the real words but spoken slowly and clearly and my daughter learned to speak very early and used the same words I did for the most part. There were a few things she had trouble with that she made up a name for until she could figure it out but if I said train, she said twain and if I said bottle, she said boddle. Also, when they are newborn until they start speaking, it is important to make repetitive consonant sounds (lalala, doodoodoo, bababa) for them to learn how to start making those sounds early which will lead to speaking sooner.

Tania - posted on 04/30/2010

I use Mama and Dada. I will also say a cow says mooo or a car goes vroom vroom.
I also think kids sometimes invent their own words for things even if you do use proper language.
When Ben was a baby he would say mune for pudding or ackie for makeup even though those words never came out of my mouth.

Lyndsay - posted on 04/30/2010

Mama and dada are fine... but I think people get carried away and its a bit ridiculous. I've always used the real words, not baby words. My son has a minor speech delay and I would much rather teach him words only once. He struggles a bit at first with pronunciation, but overall he has an excellent understanding of vocabulary and sentence structure.

Chatty - posted on 04/30/2010

" Boys have a penis, girls have a vagina! " ......what movie is that from? You know the one where the little boy says that?? LOVE IT!

Charlie - posted on 04/29/2010

Yes its a penis and Vagina in our household .

Kelly - posted on 04/29/2010

We use both for private parts....but I'm glad I have a boy because for some strange reason that I cannot define I find the word vagina repulsive. Not the actual vagina or anything that goes on in that area, but just something about the sound of the word just turns me off....I don't know, I'm warped in some way, I guess. I've never had a problem with penis. I've called my son's his penis and his "peepee" (especially during potty training b/c that's where the pee came out, not sure why but it became a name and stuck).

Corena - posted on 04/29/2010

I have always used penis and vagina with my kids.

Teresa - posted on 04/29/2010

We use penis and vagina. My son either can't or won't say penis though... it's his piney or pee nee. :)

Lady - posted on 04/29/2010

OOHH We've had this debate before about private part and it got a little heated lol!! I don't think it's necessary to use the proper words to describe private parts, in the UK it's not very typical thing to do, to hear a child say penis or vagina would be a strange occurance so it's not something I do until they are older. In my opinion penis and vagina are adult words or more grown up words and not for young children. I know a lot of people disagree, but it's what I think!

Tanya - posted on 04/29/2010

I am a big fan of proper word but i do use some baby talk.I have seen studies that say it is the worst thing you can do and studies that say it can be helpful. I think that once they get to two or three real words should be used. But for all the real words people do you still you the real words for the private parts? I am wondering what I will end up using

Alison - posted on 04/29/2010

I never thought I would, but I totally ended up using the baby language. Especially when I heard that it actual encourages language development.

Corena - posted on 04/29/2010

We use real words...but we do "practice" sounds with him as well. Whatever sound he is fixated on at the time, and encouraging him to try new sounds too. I think practicing sounds to develop the muscles used in speech is fine. I don't see any reason to not use real words when we are actually talking to him though.

Without exception, every child I know who was talked to with baby talk did not speak as early, as clearly or have as extensive a vocabulary as those who were always spoken to with proper English.

That's my experience.

(I am a little anal retentive about proper grammar though...)

Geralyn - posted on 04/27/2010

Oh, no, Dana. No offense taken at all. Actually my "Harvard" comment was not directed at your comment. It was supposed to be funny. My point was that we have fun with language - and honestly, it has not adversely affected his receptive (he understands the proper words when he hears them) and expressive language. Learning can be fun...

Jane - posted on 04/27/2010

I always talked to my kids in adult words...well, almost always. I can't say I didn't googoo and gaga once in a while but I didn't want my children learning to speak, mispronouncing words. It worked perfectly for me.

Jenny - posted on 04/27/2010

I'm just not capable of baby talk. My tone of voice certainly changes when talking to babies but I always use proper words and pronounciation. When my 2 year old sees a machine digging he says "excavator" so I must be doing something right lol.

Charlie - posted on 04/27/2010

I use proper words with cooper except for milk we call his milky anytime i say the magic word he does a dance LOL.

Having said that interesting research has come out and it is interesting here is a link : http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/computing/99...

April - posted on 04/27/2010

Proper words! I'm hearing impaired, but didn't lose my hearing until 3 years old. Before that, my mother refused to say choo choo or goo goo or whatever. She spoke to me as a person with a height difference from her! Thank goodness...because I had a wondeful vocabulary at a young age and was able to speak clearly even though I have a profound hearing loss!

Kristin - posted on 04/27/2010

Treat them like people from the start and use real words. It is one thing to be animated and say something like "cows say Moo." Seriously, even some of the kids are looking at their parent's like they are a weirdo when they do some of the things they do. But, they are not my kids to parent so I guess to each their own.

Sarah - posted on 04/27/2010

Esss, i can speaky very good goods!
Baby-waby talk not do me any boo-boos!
;)

Chatty - posted on 04/27/2010

First of all, I hate this new format!

Geralyn: I never meant to imply that anyone's children would be stupid or " not be accepted to Harvard "......I just feel the best way to teach Roxanne to speak properly is to speak properly to her. I hope I didn't come across as insulting?

Kelly - posted on 04/27/2010

lol! Gillian, Jake called yogurt "Goo-baa" Most of the words Jake made up sounded very little like the actual word--sometimes I think he just assigned a group of sounds to something if he didn't know what it was called. I remember trying to figure that one out and saying "yogurt?" and he said "Yes, goo-baa. I say goo-baa."

Geralyn - posted on 04/27/2010

"How can we expect our children to learn to speak properly when we're talking gibberish to them?" I haven't seen any 8 year olds still talking baby talk. I think they do outgrow it. I love baby talk... we use words like "eggies" for "eggs" and "Lynnie" for one of his favorite friends, "Lynn" for example. It makes language fun, and he enjoys saying our words... I doubt that he will not be accepted at Harvard because he said "eggies" at 2 years of age.... lol.

I agree with Kati and the study she posted... I also agree with Gillian, because she had the same theory as the study! lol...

Lady - posted on 04/27/2010

Where do they come up with these words, my third child called yogurts dub-a-dus - why we'll never know!

Kelly - posted on 04/27/2010

We use proper pronunciation for words, but we did simplify longer, or more complex sentences when he was younger. Like, "Please, Don't throw your toy." became "No, please. Toy." and I would show him how to be gentile. Once he was about 14-18 months, I didn't do that anymore, he could understand regular language.

He did make up some "baby words" on his own when he had trouble pronouncing more difficult words. Like "motorcycle" became "bydeedee" which sounds absolutely nothing like the right word and took months to figure out. I let him use those words, but I didn't use them myself; I said the proper word so that he would get used to hearing it and eventually try to say it.



We did speak slower and with more animation, but we used proper grammar and pronunciation.



EDIT, I just thought of an exception: We do say "boo boo" or "scrape" It seems to scare him a bit less than "cut" or "abrasion."

Amy - posted on 04/27/2010

I use the real word. I think it makes others understand them better. Otherwise a full sentence of "pet words" as we call them just get other people confused. We sign and say the proper words. My daughter even says ridiculous all the time at 3. She loves her bigger words. although i do say ouchy instead of a scrape or cut or bruise or whatever. oh, you got an ouchy.

September - posted on 04/27/2010

I say the correct word and then make its sound. I never really used "baby language" at all but did "baby talk" a bit when our son was really small.

Krista - posted on 04/27/2010

And I just wanted to add that I don't avoid baby talk because I'm being judgmental about it. I just feel really damn silly talking that way.

Sarah - posted on 04/27/2010

I do a bit of both. I don't think baby talk does any harm.
My youngest is getting to the point now where she can say things properly.....so she sometimes corrects me!
I say "look! a woof woof!" and she'll turn around and say "No MaMa....DOG!"
They WILL grow out of baby talk, so i just do what seems appropriate at the time. :)

Krista - posted on 04/27/2010

For the most part, I use proper language. I think the only "baby" talk I use is that I refer to myself as Ma Ma and my husband as Da Da, because I figure it'll be easier for him to learn.

Amy - posted on 04/27/2010

I say both sometimes, like a Cow goes Moooo. I always use big kid words, baby language makes me sick! We said a lot of words from the beginning and added in little funny things like Moooo for laughs when our son got older. He says way more words than sounds, and when he says sounds it's him repeating what his toys say not us.

Lady - posted on 04/27/2010

There is always some smart alec that puts my thoughts into a study - honestly they should just pay me to come up with these things, I'd make a fortune!! lol!

Chatty - posted on 04/27/2010

Interesting, Kati! I still hate it! LOL!

Rosie - posted on 04/27/2010

i've seen studies that suggest that baby talk is actually beneficial, here's one:



http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/2005...



it basically says that using emphasis on vowels and slow it down, it makes it easier for the baby to learn, and also the animation on our faces when talking baby talk keeps babies atten longer. i think it makes sense. it also suggested that in adults it's similar when we're trying to learn a different language that we learn better when it's slowed down and smaller pieces (like words) are emphasised. that's why we have an easier time remembering different words of a foreign language, but when someone starts speaking a whole sentence we have a problem.

Chatty - posted on 04/27/2010

I agree with Teresa, children will make up their own ' baby words '........ie. bottle becomes baba.......we certainly don't need to be encouraging them to call it that?! We say bottle, they say baba! LOL!

LaCi - posted on 04/27/2010

I hate baby talk, I think its irritating. Mine won't talk so I can't say anything about effectiveness lol. Just a personal preference.

Teresa - posted on 04/27/2010

Mostly proper words. I believe it is better for proper speech development. Kids will make up their own 'baby words' regardless of how you say it. :) I do imitate my son's way of talking at times too though.



Funny w/ my son's speech... he has been able to say 'no' for a long time. Yet, nose is 'mo' and his cousin Noah was 'wa wa' for the longest time. After about a year of this he is FINALLY starting to say 'No wa' for Noah, but is still saying 'mo'..... :)

Emma - posted on 04/27/2010

I say Choo choo train so both at once i suppose, but i hate other people talking baby to my kids as they say things differentially to me. now my daughter is 3 i only use proper words

Chatty - posted on 04/27/2010

Oh, I hope so.....LOL!

Lady - posted on 04/27/2010

I so do the ta ta thing, I've done it with all of them and they do grow out of it lol :-)

Chatty - posted on 04/27/2010

I hate ' baby talk '......not only did I feel like a moron talking like that but I don't feel it serves any purpose. How can we expect our children to learn to speak properly when we're talking gibberish to them?

I've always talked using proper words but my mom was in the habit of saying, " Ta ta " to my daughter to get her to let go of something and now she using " Ta ta " instead of say please or thank you where is necessary.....drives me nuts!

*Fluffy Bunnies - posted on 04/27/2010

I do both too. I think it's important to their speech development to hear them both ways. Like you said, Gillian, it's easier for them to say those baby words. Plus simple phrases are understood better by young children. My daughter is almost 12 months. I can't tell her "don't bite because that hurts mommy." Well I could, but she understands "no bite" much better.

Shannon - posted on 04/27/2010

I do both.

Lady - posted on 04/27/2010

I like to teach the baby words first because they are sounds that I think are easier for them to grasp and repeat. like ma ma and da da.