3.5-year-old and baby talk

[Laurel]

My dd, who is 3.5, constantly talks in "baby talk". It has been going on for months, and it is getting progressively more constant. I've always taken a laissez faire approach to it, not correcting it, but not giving it undue attention either. It has never really been a big deal to me until lately; it is now driving me NUTS. I do try to model correct speech to her, for instance if she says something to me in blabbering baby-talk, I'll say, "If you want ______, say, 'Mommy, may I please have ______. I can't understand you when you talk that way." She will repeat what she needs in regular words. But overall the baby talk is increasing, not decreasing.

I'm trying to figure out what she is trying to gain from this. I have tried to acknowledge the times when she wants a little extra nurturing, wants to go back to that time and place when she was a little baby and life was grand. We spend time rocking in the rocking chair, I let her pretend to be a baby and rock with me, etc. But this constant, all-day-long talking in baby talk is really getting on my nerves. At this point I am trying to just say, "DD, talk to me so that I can understand you."

Any other ideas? Do I continue to basically ignore it or just ask her to repeat herself correctly? Is there some deep unmet need I'm missing here, or is this just a silly habit that will pass with time?

[red17]

I do hope that this gets better for you .... Have you tried ignoring her behavior? Perhaps you could tell her that she needs to talk to you like a big girl so you can understand her. If she wants to talk to her dolls that way, fine. But when she's not talking to her dolls she needs to speak in words that you can understand. ... I hope it's just a phase.... Good luck.

[Catherine12]

My oldest went through a similar phase when she was around 4. It drove me utterly nuts. In our case it was probably related to our third child's birth - she saw all the attention the baby was getting and wanted it for herself, or something like that.

It took months, but she eventually outgrew it. In retrospect, I think my attempts at getting her to stop were counterproductive. Ignoring it may be best, or just doing the "what did you say? I couldn't understand" thing when she asks for something, but in a no big deal sort of way.

[minkin03]

when my 4 yo tries to do this i go ahead and let her, but then i tell her that babies wear diapers, drink from bottles, take 2 naps a day, can't ride bikes, etc... and she drops it real quick. lol

[honeybunmom]

My daughter turned 4 in late October. I saw a recent resurgence of this over the weekend. I just did what I used to do, "I'm sorry, honey, I can't understand you - you have to use your big girl voice." Rewind; repeat. And she finally stops.