DS keeps saying 'pardon' all the time

[wangle99]

Arghghgh new annoying habit, after everything anyone says to DS (he's 2y 9m) he says 'pardon'.

I'm pretty sure there is nothing wrong with his hearing, and his speech is fantastic (which I'm sure would be affected if he had hearing issues).

How can I stop him doing it???? Apart from gagging him lol

[Twiglett]

teach him to say what instead

pardon is terribly non-u don'tcha know

[PrettyCandles]

Don't want to scaremonger, but when ds was about that age he started suffering episodes of glue ear and partial deafness, and the first indication of it was that after everything anyone said he would ask 'What did you say?' and yet his speech was fantastic, too. (Though 'What did you say?' eventually degenerated to 'Wha-say?'). Try the classic tests of asking him whether he wants ice-cream very quietly behind his back, and also while holding a book up in front of you so he can only see your eyes.

OTOH he may jsut have picked up a rather cute if irritating habit! If it really bothers you the best way to deal with it is to ignore it. If it gets a reaction then there's a reason to continue.

[wangle99]

Twiglett you did make me laugh! I shall alter what I say immediately!

PC I will definately try this, DS does have an awful lot of wax in his ears (far more than I would consider 'normal'), although I don't know much about hearing issues not sure if this can cause a problem! I will test him later...

[kando]

My dd2 does this all the time - it drives me nuts! She does it every now and again, and has only just stopped doing it this week. I know there's nothing wrong with her hearing - when she says "pardon", I say "what do you think I just said?", and she repeats it word for word! She soon gets fed up of me asking that question so doesn't bother with the "pardon" in the end (until next time!)

[stoppinattwo]

DS about that age kept saying "actually"

obviously not as potentially worrying as pardon, but equally as infuriating/amusing

[Rosieglow]

My DS kept saying "wot d'you say" after everything I asked until I told him to say "pardon" (Yes, yes I know Twiglet....). Now he says "Wot d'you say, I mean, pardon" everytime. It's about the only thing he's ever listened to me on - still makes me laugh though.