Linguistic crimes: baby talk in older kids

While it's mostly cute or mildly worrisome when preschoolers can't pronounce all their letters or say certain words in funny ways, it's utterly repulsive when an older child attempts baby talk and says something inane like "Me want more mewk, peas." (translation: I would like a supplemental glass of dairy beverage, mother dear."). My almost 7-year-old is a well spoken kid. So when she puts on this baby act, I pretty much want to throttle her. There is nothing CUTE about it. I start looking around, wondering if there's anyone in earshot. Will they think she's developmentally disabled? Or just plain stupid? What in the world brings on this crazed baby talk? Heather and I have noticed our kids often trot off the bus speaking in this affected baby tongue. Is it their way of blowing off steam after a long day at school? Have I aided and abetted this language crime by remarking how CUTE the preschooler's baby pronunciations are, so that the older one is now trying to capitalize on that cuteness and get some of my attention? But more importantly, how do I make it stop??

Comments

[lilah]

The baby talk drives me nutty also. I googled six year old boy one day and I found a few sites that said this behavior is normal along with a lot of other annoying behaviors like lying straight to your face after you saw them push their brother over. Something about learning to balance their feelings between toddler and kid. The fact that he jumps around like a frog after school......not so normal.

[Julie]

I think it's the same as whining in younger kiddos. My ears cannot hear whining. My ears only hear nice voices. Maybe your ears cannot hear baby talk from children over age 3?

[Carlos]

Good to know I'm not the only one with a short fuse for this. My 7-year-old daughter does it ALL the time. She has a twin sister who never does it! I've tried gently talking to her about it, getting mad about it, ignoring it. I even told her that every tiime she did it I was taking a quarter out of her piggy bank (even though I never really did). On the flip side, I've made sure to praise her when she uses her "big girl" voice. Nothing works! The worst part is I am speech and language pathologist. They never taught us anything about this in grad school!

[Katy]

I have a seven year old with an advanced vocabulary who reads chapter books, but he uses baby voices in new social situations.my husband and I don't know what to do, he spoke that way today on the baseball field, and some boys made fun of him. I was hoping that natural consequences would do the trick, but I'm afraid I need to seek the advice of a professional. If it is related to anxiety, I don't want to make things worse.