To think that vagina is not the only word for it?

[superstarheartbreaker]

Dd and I call it a noo noo or foo foo. She is 4. Lots of people say that vagina is the only acceptable term but it sounds so clinical. At this age I think noo noo is fine...and cute.I dont even call it a vagina.

Dont you just teach both.

Does not language use evolve as kids grow

Do children understand as they grow they know to adopt and change their language for different situations.

My DS knows a few names for his gentalia, some we have used and some he has picked up from children at school.

I have experience with child protection and the knowing of the correct anatomical names is exceptionally important.

No it's not. Most interviewers will use dolls or other aids to assist comminication. I've been involved with lots of child sex crime cases. Never ever seen a victim refer to their genitals in anything other than colloquial terms, didnt atop people knowing exactly what they meant

That is certainly a fault in the justice system, rather than anything else surely?

All children have the right to protection and justice regardless of what their parents have or haven't taught them.

That was aimed at jonncussack's comment btw

All of my children were boys so we only had the willy/penis vocab so I am not sure what Word I would have used with girls. Looking back I am pretty sure I used the word vagina to the boys when they asked about female parts. I am ashamed to say I was incorrect though at the time, as I probably should have said vulva.
However thinking back to my archaic upbringing, female bits were only ever referred to by my mother as "front bottom" with a disgusted look on her face.
Knowing my very odd mother as I do, her reasoning would have been you don't talk about anything that might lead you to have sex before marriage!
And that was totally disgusting and turned you permanently into a slut.

I support what career says. I have been trainined in CP as a secondary school teacher and it never came up as an issues though those children are a lot older.

More recently I completed a child development module (Bsc Pysh) and we were talking about langauge acqusistion and recall in a tutorial. My tutor mentioned she found it fascinating that certain things reported in the media (about the abuse cases) as she did not understand how a child could articulate certain things because of a lack of language. BUT not that it didnt occur just the accuracy of what was reported as being said by the child.

There are very strict guidlines based on what happened with the Bulger case about how children are interviewed re abuse and handled in legal contexts.

Eminybob, of course it's a failing in the justice system. All I mean is that surely it's better to teach the correct words to avoid an ambiguity/confusion. Not sure why there seems to be so much resistance to teaching kids the proper words for their body parts

It'd be good if all these threads as well as all the is it right or wrong to order coffee before sitting down Andy neighbour parked in my line of view ones were merged into one thread each and stuck at the top.

My velvet? What the fuck?
Now all the vagina V vulva people can now drop that and use 'my velvet'.

DS used to say winkle when he was smaller, I dont know where he got it from..he now will say bits or willy. Its age appropriate, I cant understand all the angst about having to use to 'correct' name when its usually wrong anyway

Between OH and myself we use fanny --cunt- and cock, I obviuosly dont use these with medical people.

I'm not resistant to it, and I plan to, however, as I've said up thread, there may be children who have either not had that level of education at home, are from a different culture where different words are used, or English is not their first language.
We can't change the way children speak overnight, what we should have as adults is an understanding and ability to read between the lines, especially if you work with children, particularly in child protection.

Im sure the good people who deal with children in relation to abuse have the err education and background to know that a child may use a different term to penis or vagina. They also do a lot of observational work with play around dolls and drawings. I think it insulting to suggest they may not pick on a child who looks shy or fearful saying a 'word' and pointing.

Thank you andsmile. My point exactly!
And these case which have apparently been thrown out because of incorrect terminology I'm sure are the exception rather than the norm.

...but why not make things easier rather than harder?
what's more important, communicating accurately or avoiding feeling embarassed having to say vulva?

well its silly, one jut needs to read the NSPCC website about sexulaised behaviours and one can see there is a whole range of what to look for or not be worried about and it extends way beyond the tuse of the terms penis and vagina

Lanabelle has the right idea.

You can check to see if your fav nom-de-er,er ... is on here:

onlineslangdictionary.com/thesaurus/words+meaning+vulva+%28%27vagina%27%29,+female+genitalia.html

And what's with all the testicles, genitals stuff? Surely you all know it to be 'testes' and 'genitalia'? (couldn't resist the chance to be smug)

I just don't understand why you would teach your children words for anything that you know lots of other people aren't going to understand. Can anyone explain why this is done? It is difficult with girls as there is no Willy equivalent (and it would be enlightening to know why that is I think) but with mine I chose something that I thought other people would know what it meant. When people choose words with other meanings like fairy or flower or words that most other people will not guess, what is the purpose of that?

I chose something that was related actually but that was because I was potty training and Mr Pee Pee served a purpose, that part ofthe body was used for peeing wee from and at the time thats what I needed him to understand

Every time I see one of these threads I practise saying vulva. It's only weird because it's not used.

Vulva vulva vulva. Love your vuvlas

actually foofoo, twinkle tuppence and noonoo aren't on that list which kind of suggests it's impossible to second guess what bonkers term people will come up with

If it's the vulva, then vagina is completely the wrong word for it, anyhow. I doubt that most 4 year olds are even aware that they have a vagina.

I know its the correct term but vulva is close to volvo it makes me think of those.

On these threads, there are always a handful of people who go all school teacher-ish and love to be smug and say "actually it's a vulva". Well, I'm sure a doctor will know what you mean, so say what the fuck you like.

P.S. making up false information such as; not giving the correct names will hinder a child sexual abuse case is really harmful.