My youngest, Tiffany, says the word SEED instead of SAW when she is talking. It was really cute when she was younger, but now that she is in pre-school, I decided it was time to correct her speech.
The next time I heard her say, "Daddy, I seed a deer on the way home today!" I lovingly replied, "Tiffany, it's not seed, but we say, saw."
To that she said, "No Mommy, we say SEED!"
Ok, this was going to be more difficult than I had realized. Perhaps I should have corrected this one some time ago instead of waiting because it was so cute!
Plan B - I tried reasoning with her, "Sweet heart, a SEED is something we plant, so the proper way to say it is to say, "I SAW."
To that, my husband chimed in, "Don't you use a SAW to cut down trees?" AAAHHH!! He was not helping! (Although he did have a valid point.)
Moving to plan C - Now every time she improperly says "I seed," I simply repeat it back and say, "You saw?" It will take a little more work on my part, but I'm hoping that before long she will begin speaking properly.
What's my parenting tip in all of this? Don't wait until a behavior has become a habit when correcting your children. Even if it seems cute when they are young.
You know what I am referring to, remember when your toddler son threw something in anger and you thought, "Hey, Jr. has a great arm on him!" Keep those thoughts to yourselves and think ahead to when they are older and if it will still be cute. It's all about training, and the younger we can curb those bad habits, the easier it will be for everyone.
4 comments:
One of my favorite memories is when my Cici used to ask for milk, but she called it "mock." Yes, it was hard to correct after the fact. And she still calls bikinis, zuchinis. hahaha! I guess I need to work in this area. But I am a pro at correcting behavior and grammer. Just not pronunciation.
I used to know a little girl (toddler) who always pronounced shoe as osh. I have no idea why. We tried and tried to teach her to say shoe but she didn't seem to get it. ?
Good lessons in here Sonya. If you think Jr has a great arm, you can redirect the anger and encourage him to go outside and throw a baseball instead. It might turn out to be a God given skill.
Excellent. And so true. The earlier we can help them eliminate bad habits (of behavior or character) the better for them and us!
But I must admit that what your husband did was funny, at least to me. B/c that is something I would do. And my wife would say, "You are NOT helping!" :)
Great advice, I may have already let a few things go that I shouldn't!
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