Would you correct this? words

[newmothermary]

My ds Miles is 21 mos and talks up a storm. I have been wondering about this for some time.

He like to lump all meals that are soft and call it "rice" anything that is hard, crunchy is "crackers" or "cookies". 

Would you correct him and say no, that is not rice. That is pasta. Or, that is not a cracker or a cookie but a potato chip?

TIA!

[alittlesandy]

What I've heard is not to actually correct your child, but to always use the correct term and pronunciation when referring to the item. So you don't say, "No, that's not rice, that's pasta," but you do say, "Are you done with your pasta? Would you like some more pasta? Do you like your pasta?" etc.

[Super~Single~Mama]

I certainly wouldn't worry about it, its probably more of a function of him not having the vocabulary words yet to describe different things.  I wouldn't make a big deal about it, but I would talk to him about what we were eating, ie. "DS do you like pasta?  We're going to have pasta for dinner!"  If he calls it rice, you can either correct or not, its really your choice.  I do tend to correct, but very gently, saying things like, "yes, aren't the cookies yummy?" when ds says "Cocky" for cookie.  But, as long as you're talking to him about what you're eating, and naming things (which at 21mo certainly isn't required, but it might help grow his vocabulary a bit - and I know my 23mo ds LOVES it when i teach him new words), he'll pick up the differences eventually!

[physmom]

Yeah... so we actually encourage the cookie/cracker confusion (she refers to everything as a cookie) because then we can get away with giving her crackers and she's completely happy to eat them. 

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by physmom 

Yeah... so we actually encourage the cookie/cracker confusion (she refers to everything as a cookie) because then we can get away with giving her crackers and she's completely happy to eat them. 

LOL we have a book and one page says, "Baby wants a snack, what does baby need? COOKIES!" We always replace that with 'crackers' or 'muffins' (the cookies do kind of look muffin-ish...) And we do the same with the bottle page, he now thinks bottles are 'cups'....

Anyway, aside from that book (for which I change the words mostly because it says "Baby NEEDS a bottle" which I'm not comfortable telling him, he's never had a bottle & we don't generally give him cookies for snacks!) I do correct him but usually in a silly way because I know he knows the 'correct' words. "No, that's not RICE, that's _____" and he'll shout "PASTA!!" Otherwise (if I didn't think he knows the correct word) I would just do what one of the pp's said & say, "Oh isn't this pasta yummy? Do you like your pasta?" etc. It sounds like your DS is pretty good at categorizing things so maybe you can give him more general words too (So rather than saying "that's not rice, it's pasta" you could explain that rice & pasta are both grains).

[blizzard_babe]

I'd probably point out the difference in a non-corrective way. Either just re-cast correctly ("I want rice!" "Oh, you want some pasta? Here's your pasta!"), or say something like, "Yeah, it's soft like rice, and we eat it like rice, but this stuff's called pasta! See, it's longer, and it's shape is different, and it tastes a little bit different." And then move on. It's really no big deal... it's a part of how their inexperienced brains deal with stuff. They can also over-specify. Like the word "crib" only applies to a crib that is the same color is theirs, or "chair" only applies to kitchen chairs, and then they over-generalize and call everything in the living room a "couch." Just model correct language and they get it eventually. 

Over-generalization of words is very common at that age. DS, who's much older (2 1/2) still calls all football players on TV "Packers." If a team is playing, he'll say, "What team are those purple Packers?" "What team are those orange Packers?" DH and I are Packer fans, and I guess it rubbed off. He KNOWS the correct term "football players" at this point, but it's one of those weird linguistic things that has stuck.

[HidaShara]

We started correcting our (also very talkative) DD just recently, at about 28 months.  The difference is that now she is able to have the conversation with us - "Oh, that's a cracker.  Okay, then what's this?  Oh, a pita chip."  She also corrects us now. ::)  I think if we'd started correcting her too early, she would have thought we were changing the subject or something similar.  Her conversation level wasn't quite so self-referential, ykwim?  It's like she's only become aware that language is language.

[newmothermary]

Originally Posted by HidaShara 

...I think if we'd started correcting her too early, she would have thought we were changing the subject or something similar.  Her conversation level wasn't quite so self-referential, ykwim?  It's like she's only become aware that language is language.

This is where my reservations to correct him lies.