'Cutesy' language to baby

[Wick]

NC'd

DH keeps saying "feeties" instead of foot or feet and many other words to our 10 month old. I've asked him to use the proper words while our child learns to speak but he's carrying on anyway.

It's driving me mad, AIBU?

Interestingly I have always hated baby talk until I listened to a renowned expert in the development of language,
He said that th higher pitch musicalilty of baby talk and adding syllables to words gave it a rythmn that attracted a baby's attention and stimulated the speech centres in the brain, so there you have it, annoying but a good thing

Strangely enough, there are often reasons why things have always been done a certain way, and it does sometimes prove that our grannies knew what they were doing!

(and don't all come back to me about changes in feeding and nutrition etc - I know!! I said 'sometimes'!)

Yeah. My son is 8.5 months and he can now clearly say “anaesthetist” because I refused to use baby words with him.

YABU, @Wick

Strangely enough, there are often reasons why things have always been done a certain way, and it does sometimes prove that our grannies knew what they were doing!

Absolutely. Our intuition is very often spot on.

Aged 10 months it's fine, aged 10, not so much...don't sweat it.

Yeah. My son is 8.5 months and he can now clearly say “anaesthetist” because I refused to use baby words with him.

A nice party trick for sure - but how is this of any real life benefit for your child? I’m sure he doesn’t know what an anaesthetist is - better to say ‘horsey’ and ‘footsie’ in context and actually know what the fuck you’re talking about...

Pretty sure that was a joke

It'll be fine OP, I spoke to my children in a baby sing song way, they're older now and certainly know how to speak properly! To be honest, I speak to my cat in the same manner but she just gives me filthy looks instead.

This thread is hilarious!

OP: AIBU?
Everyone: YABU!
OP: Well I speak three languages to my 8 month old, my husband angrily swears at the child and maybe you need to read some proper research

You're very defensive OP. Try to figure out why you're really so angry; I dont think it's anything to do with footsies and toesies.

I have already covered your questions.

You haven’t answered any. But it’s okay I know why.

That article was pretty enlightening as to the kind of person you are though, cheers.

You're very defensive OP. Try to figure out why you're really so angry

There is a certain type of poster on here that posts to receive confirmation that they’re right and can’t handle any feedback that suggests otherwise.

@Pinkblueberry OF COURSE HE CANT SAY ANAESTHETIST!!!!! He’s got as far as “daddad”.

😂

Just kidding around!!! He’s eight and a half months old!!!

Yeah, YABU. Your baby will learn to talk just fine, and it must be driving him mad to have his parenting policed like that

Yup!

I hate baby talk so no you're not unreasonable at all. Speak to your child properly

I really can't remember how I spoke to my children when they were very tiny, except to be amazed at the development in their language acquisition from about 18 months. The one thing I do remember was insisting on 'Thankyou' rather than 'Ta'.

@happymummy12345

Speak to your child properly

Or else what? What do you think will happen if you don't 'speak properly' to tiny children?

Using baby talk is an important way to modify language to help children to learn sounds and words. Just as you wouldn't give a toddler a fountain pen or a steak knife, you give them the linguistic equivalent of chunky crayons and cutlery to help them to learn the skills.

Although they will rarely admit it, it makes a lot of parents feel self-conscious and embarrassed and so they claim that they are too sophisticated for such silliness, which is a shame and of little benefit to their child.

All this is academic, however, if the child is being regularly shouted at by one of their primary carers.

Although they will rarely admit it, it makes a lot of parents feel self-conscious and embarrassed and so they claim that they are too sophisticated for such silliness, which is a shame and of little benefit to their child.

I’d never thought of it like this, but I expect that’s a bit part of what’s going on for some parents.

Big part

Or else what? What do you think will happen if you don't 'speak properly' to tiny children?

This. We have grown up DC, they are all in very good jobs and all went to university, they have no speech problems and none of them call their feet their feeties or their socks their sockies that I know of and believe me, I baby talked in a daft voice to all of them!

Can someone find me a link to show that words such as "feeties" and other made up fun words as beneficial in themselves? As that is what I've complained about.

PLEASE NOTE: I have not got a problem with a 'sing song' tone, or stretching words out (saying them slower) OR repetition "woof woof" as this is what I call baby talk.

I think 3 languages are enough to be using with proper words without adding variations of

Does these mean you never use synonyms? That you carefully remember which is the approved word to use to your child and don't let anyone use another one that means more or less the same thing? How does such a language even work?.

I know it is often said that bilingual children speak later- though it certainly wasn't the case with mine- but is it not perhaps equally likely that this is because they need to sort out which bits of language go where, what granny will understand and what my friends will understand?

And does it even matter how early you speak: surely in the long run what is important is to have as wide and confident language as possible with as much richness of cultural context as possible? To me, that involves knowing what baby language sounds like. It is all part of the rich tapestry of being a child in a particular culture.

Mitsuhiko Ota, Nicola Davies-Jenkins, Barbora Skarabela. Why Choo-Choo Is Better Than Train: The Role of Register-Specific Words in Early Vocabulary Growth. Cognitive Science, 2018; DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12628

“Researchers say these findings suggest some types of baby talk words more than other words can help infants develop their vocabulary more quickly.

“The team says words that end in 'y' such as tummy, mummy and doggy or words that repeat sounds such as choo-choo and night-night could help infants identify words in speech.

“They found that infants who heard a higher proportion of diminutive words and words with repeated syllables developed their language more quickly between nine and 21 months.”

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29998604/