• Everyone wants well spoken kids.

    For the most part, there really isn’t a secret on how to raise a talker. Part of it comes down to personality of the child, and the other part is example. As with lots of the behaviors our kids have, talking is learned from their parents or older siblings. When my daughter was just an infant, I talked all day long. It was tiring, and I often felt like a blubbering idiot talking mostly to myself. But she listened, she learned. Now she’s four and narrates her day the way I used to narrate mine. In fact, she sounds just like I do, even using my own phrases back at me. She enunciates the way I do too. It cracks me up.

    I remember when she was little and I would talk about hats. I made such a huge deal about enunciating that T, I’m not sure why I made such a big deal about it, but I am glad I did. Now both of my kids are well spoken and perfectly say the word hat. I’m not saying that this is guaranteed, again, part of a child’s desire to talk is based on their personalities. I’ve seen many kids, smart as a whip, who didn’t talk until after two. My guess is that they worry about saying something incorrectly. Smart little buggers don’t want to make a mistake.

    The best thing to do is to keep talking, and never correct a child who says something wrong. My daughter used to say, “hurted.” Instead of saying, “You mean to say hurt.” I would say, “Wow! You hurt yourself?” This simple change in my response enforces how things are said, (hurt instead of hurted), but doesn’t make her feel chastised for the mistake. So keep talking!