Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Derwood
my best advice is to always speak to your kid like they are an adult. My daughter is not quite three but speaks as well as (or better than) most four year olds I meet. The reason is that A) we never, ever spoke "baby talk" to her (no "wook at duh widdle baby, she so cutesy wootsy!") and we've always talked to her in full sentences and addressed her like she was an intelligent human being. No "Baby want bottle? Mommy want hug!" She'll turn 3 in March and I get comments every single day about how big her vocabulary is and how complex her sentence structures are.
I also think that it's never too early to correct them for grammar, etc. Certainly you don't want to be mean about it or even super strict, but the longer you allow bad habits to linger, the harder they will be to correct.
My point is, talk to your kid at the level you want them to speak. If you talk dumb, they'll learn dumb. That's just my 2 cents.
|
AMEN. As one who has proven this theory in my own daughter, I can tell you this is extreemly benificial (at least in my daughters case). My daughter, 2.5 years old, can hold up partial conversations with not just my wife and I, but friends and even strangers. We, my wife and I, have spoken to her only a handfull of times in a goo goo ga ga type of speech, usually opting to simply have warm tones in our voices (unless she is in trouble, of course).