Like, oh my god, my daughter's intonation is rilly, like, annoying me?

[AuntieBulgaria]

I have no idea where it's coming from. She doesn't use 'like' yet, to be fair, but she does use the Australian Questioning Intonation where the end of the sentence goes up? Like it's a question? Even when it's just a statement? Arrgh. She alternates this with dropping her aitches and using remarkable glottal stops. I don't think I talk like that.

She is nearly four. Anyone give me any hope for it being a short-lived phase?

ooh I feel your pain. We have this and have had this since dd was about 4 and is now 6 and it still goes on. We correct, and correct and correct and it is getting better.
No help I'm afraid, but in our case certainly not a short lived thing.

DS is 5 and is still doing it. I hate it.

We now don't say "don't say that", we say the word he has done it with correctly then ask him to say it again.

Our older two never did it, and it's driving us nuts.

Is there some evil tv programme it's coming from do you think? We only have cbeebies at home but I think she watches the Disney channel at the childminders.

Far be it for me to stamp on your daughter's freedom of expression....
So you must.

Itolerable.

Aww....I just realised that she's only four.
Not too late to send her back. She'd barely remember you.

AuntieBulgaria - I can't even blame disney channels - she only ever gets to watch Cbeebies but she changed when she went to school which has the influence of other children that I can't correct

Even my DH has started doing this and he's 50 FFS. He just hangs around with too many Young People at work. Anyway, i'll see your daughter and rais you my middle son. His speech is SHOCKING. He seems to be totally lacking in consonants.

DD does love playing with anyone older. It did get worse this evening actually after she was bothering hanging out with some 8 year old girls in the pub garden. I don't think they were poorly spoken but maybe she was hoping to impress.

I did realise after listening to DD talking that both my mum and I say 'af to' instead of have to.

Pictish, some days....

He has started again already today, everything sounds like a question.

Grr

Oh my goodness. DD4 is 14. Still does it!! How many times over the past 11 years have I corrected, encouraged, repeated it correctly, screamed at her . IT DRIVES ME MAD!!!!!!!

No, it does not get better, no you never get used to it, no you can never ignore it!!

DSD went through a phase like this, but she was quite a bit older. She outgrew it but occasionally slips so we gently tell her to talk properly.

Hmm, so we have our work cut out. I was flabbergasted when it started as I assumed that it was a teen or at least tween kind of thing.

My only hope is that DD has a good ear for language and is often pilfering other's expressions. She is currently keen on 'of course' as in 'of course, Daddy Pig couldn't find his glasses because he was sitting on them.' I will just have to keep radio 4 on constantly.

DD has a real mongrel accent. Currently she is channelling her inner North West Englander since that is where we live now.
For ages she sounded very American due to the accent at the school she went to, she then went on to using very Indian inflections and lots of head waggling. Now, she has a bizarre mix of my London/Estuary pronounciation and the local accent.
We did go through the like phase and, like came out the other side.

OMG, NO!!!

DS is 20 months old and I have feared since his birth that he will end up with a broad, rural Yorkshire accent (I'm South African and struggle to understand most of t'people in t'village) but what you are describing is so, so,so much worse.

Give me now't and rood any day.

Must add that Iwish we lived in Liverpool for the accent alone, I LOOOOVE the Scouse lilt.

Children's accents are very versatile and malleable at that age though - she'll probably be all over the place before she's 12, when it starts to become more entrenched.

I don't stand a hope anyway - we live in Australia, so DS is going to sound like one almost as soon as he starts going to school [glum]

You're lucky, AuntieB, we live abroad and my children have a bizarre accent which veers from American to Australian with Chinese intonation and sentence structure (e.g. 'Mumeeeah! I also wanna cookie'). [sigh] I can't entirely blame the international school etc, as I'm afraid DD has got most of hers from watching too much Nick Jnr

My DD is doing "like" all the time. When she says eg. "I was eating this, like, apple and...." we stop her mid-sentence and say "so it was like an apple but not actually an apple then? Hmmm, was it a pear?" etc. It doesn't make any difference though and just frustrates her so I'm just desperately hoping that she will, like, come out of it. It must be from school friends as she's a CBeebies only girl too...

My ds is 17 and sounds like a cross between boris Johnson and chandler from friends

Quite simply as a social animal we will fit in wherever we are. It is a skill to be able to blend in, thats the good bit. But as long as she blends back again to talking nicely. If she spends more time in others company, (pub garden???) then she'll speak like that more. I correct my DD2, who is very sociable, but am hoping Grammar School in sept will be better than Primary for this kind of thing. (wiv/with, fred/ thread)
If you dont like how her speech is developing you have to change what shes LISTENING to.
Turn the TV off. Let her play, and have stories on a tape in the background, they are often read by ac-tors who speak nicely!

You talking to her is the MOST important. Obviously.