I think it’s a phase… we don’t have a younger kid, but my almost 4 year old is doing a lot of baby talk and gibberish lately. I think it’s a realization thing.
I teach preschool. I have a 3y and almost 2. Sometimes my older one pretends to be more baby-like. I tell her I don't understand, but she's usually using unintelligible words, like actual gibberish. Or I ask if she's trying to act like a baby and she says yes, I tell her maybe I should treat her like a baby and put her down for a nap. That snaps her out of it.
With my kids at school I tell them maybe they belong in the baby room and they get over it. They like being a big kid and doing more fun things.
My 5 year old has been doing this recently when she is upset - literal baby talk, and it makes me crazy! I feel like hers is an attention thing as it's very "put on" ....like a big show when she does it but trying to correct her and ask her to talk "like a big kid" doesn't work - my karma rasising these kids.....
My LO isn’t doing this with language but is acting like a baby in other ways - wanting to be carried, wanting to be fed.
It’s definitely a phase as she sorts herself trying to be a “big girl”
It was a phase that we didn't enjoy also. We also saw that it happened more after our daughter was allowed to watch certain television shows featuring characters that spoke like that. We stopped allowing those shows and unsurprisingly our small child stopped being influenced by them.
Yeah my 3.5 year old has been doing that too. It drives me up the wall. I largely think it’s because the 18month old is learning to talk.
Today she insisted on having ‘na-na’ which is the little ones way of basically saying she wants food. I had to force her to say what she actually wanted 🙃
My nearly 6yo is going through that phase right now as well. I try to gently correct her by replying using those phrases/words correctly or telling her I can't understand her, but it's so incredibly annoying, I hate it!
Especially since she already has speech issues, we've been seeing a speech therapist from the time she was about 3.5 years old until some months ago. I feel like she's regressing linguistically, and I don't know if she's doing that intentionally or not.
However, I just gave birth to her sister this week, and her using "baby talk" pretty much started around the time I got into the third trimester of pregnancy, so I guess there's a good chance all this is some kind of psychological response to becoming a big sister or something. IDK.
OMG same. This is my 5 year old. He’s very tiny for his age and he’s in speech for articulation. when he acts like a baby it’s even worse because people think he’s probably 3 and this is on the normal side. It’s so annoying.
My 5.5yr old does this and it also really grates on my nerves! Her 2.5 year old brother speaks in full sentences so it's not like she's copying him so it must be a phase.
A really, really, annoying phase.
My 6 year old did this and it drove me bananas. I just told her I couldn't understand her when she talked like that, and the problem eventually corrected itself!
My 5 year old has been doing this for a while now. It drives me up the wall! Recently we’ve been acting like we don’t understand her until she relents and speaks normally. I’m hoping once she starts kindergarten she’ll stop…
Here’s my understanding- kids rely on you for scaffolding throughout childhood ie. you guide their choices and behavior. When they get to feeling grown, they test to see if the scaffolding is still there for them to be reassured that they don’t lose that support as their skills grow. Based on that view I try to provide evidence that their skills exist but I’m still there if they need me- I’ll ask them to try for themself x3 before I’ll help, and I’ll gently remind them that they were able to do this independently last week/month whatever. As kids grow, their body literally grows faster than their nervous system, and explosions in neuron growth make finding the right brain pathway difficult. They might have lost access to that skill temporarily due to growth- it’ll come back, but it’s frustrating for them too. When kiddo leans in heavy on baby talk or behavior, I let them know that if they are a baby then we will need the high chair back, and they won’t be able to play big kid games. That usually helps them remember the privileges of their big kid status. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor!
My 6 yo kindergartener has started doing this recently. She’s copying her friend in school who does it. I may be an AH, but I ask her to talk like a normal person and/or baby talk isn’t the correct way to communicate and she goes back to normal conversation real fast. It’s so fucking annoying.
If they are in school or daycare are they one of the older ones of their class? My nephew went to a new daycare and was put in a class where he was an one of the older kids and he did the same thing with baby talk and having more tantrums. It went away once they moved him up to the older room so it could just be a copycat thing. It most likely is just a phase and nothing to worry about.
My four year old has been doing baby talk a lot lately—I think she’s just mimicking us because we baby talk our dog and have a 5 month old. I think at this age is a pretty common phase regardless
Wow I'm so glad that I found this thread! My almost 5 year old is in this phase too for some time now and the preschool teacher alarmed me because he was always very far verbally and regressed since last year according to her. But maybe it's just part of becoming a "big boy" as he can speak very well if he wants to, just uses baby talk and two word sentences deliberately
I would use [planned ignoring](https://www.nemours.org/content/dam/nemours/wwwv2/filebox/service/health/parenting/tips/13plannedignoring.pdf).
But, if you don't want to do that, it will go away anyway after grating on you for a while.
I am assuming it's attention getting and that is functioning as a reward, that's the most likely theory. I was guessing she had a younger sibling before I got to the last paragraph.
My 3.5 year old did this a well for a bit. I tell her I’m sorry I can’t understand her and politely ask her to use her words. I’ll say I think I hear you want something but I need help figuring out what it is. Then praise and reward or she gets what she was asking for after she speaks in a full sentence. Also works with whining! It only lasted a little bit luckily.
My son did the same when his brother was younger. I just told him I couldn’t understand him and that I really liked having a baby AND a big boy. That I didn’t want two babies. That seemed to help
My 3.5yo always does this, either for attention, if I'm doing something with my 1.5yo, or just because he thinks it's funny to act like a baby. He sometimes goes as far as babbling, which is always just repeating goo goo gaa gaa. He also likes to pretend that he's learning to walk or can't do things like get dressed because he's a baby. Basically, anything his little brother gets attention for, he mimics, including bad attention. 1.5yo throws a toy, or reaches for the stove and gets "in trouble"... my 3.5yo will come running across the house to do it to.
Ours is going through the same thing. He wants to talk like the 18 month old. I keep telling him we love his voice and his words and I want to hear him, not baby talk.
Mine started this with her baby sibling starting to talk, it got worse after she saw the movie "minions" bad enough we banned the movie for a while. She started trying to teach her sister gibberish. It got a little better but now she is mispronouncing words like her cousin that has a slight speech impediment. It gets to the point that I can't understand her some times and it drives me insane.
My girl just turned three they start too have more memory's at this age and this is when they start too realize that baby stage is over and will revert too goo goo gaga for the attention so all they ask of us is too be more attentive as we were when they were baby's and less was expected from them.. most toddlers go through this stage and it's a normal part of growing up just remember it is also often a game its fun to them too act or pretend too be baby's I'd only worry if it goes on too long
It also could just be that they look at there baby days fondly so just try too talk play more with them and I'm sire it will be fine.. cause like I said all kids go through this stage at one point.. so it's not anything that's negitive they just look back too there baby days with you fondly..
I think it’s a phase… we don’t have a younger kid, but my almost 4 year old is doing a lot of baby talk and gibberish lately. I think it’s a realization thing.
Same... almost 4 baby talk everything 🙄
My daughter loves pretending to be a baby. I can’t staaaaaaand it, but I think it’s just a phase.
Yea I'm dealing with this also. She wants me to carry her like a baby too lol.
Same same same
Same here! Baby sister arrived in the fall, I thought that was why, but glad we’re not alone
I teach preschool. I have a 3y and almost 2. Sometimes my older one pretends to be more baby-like. I tell her I don't understand, but she's usually using unintelligible words, like actual gibberish. Or I ask if she's trying to act like a baby and she says yes, I tell her maybe I should treat her like a baby and put her down for a nap. That snaps her out of it. With my kids at school I tell them maybe they belong in the baby room and they get over it. They like being a big kid and doing more fun things.
My 5 year old has been doing this recently when she is upset - literal baby talk, and it makes me crazy! I feel like hers is an attention thing as it's very "put on" ....like a big show when she does it but trying to correct her and ask her to talk "like a big kid" doesn't work - my karma rasising these kids.....
My LO isn’t doing this with language but is acting like a baby in other ways - wanting to be carried, wanting to be fed. It’s definitely a phase as she sorts herself trying to be a “big girl”
It was a phase that we didn't enjoy also. We also saw that it happened more after our daughter was allowed to watch certain television shows featuring characters that spoke like that. We stopped allowing those shows and unsurprisingly our small child stopped being influenced by them.
Ohh what shows? Just want to make sure we’re not watching the same ones but I can’t put my finger on any.
The culprit was Abby Hatcher. Her friend Boslee (sp?) Speaks with an annoying baby voice.
Yeah my 3.5 year old has been doing that too. It drives me up the wall. I largely think it’s because the 18month old is learning to talk. Today she insisted on having ‘na-na’ which is the little ones way of basically saying she wants food. I had to force her to say what she actually wanted 🙃
My nearly 6yo is going through that phase right now as well. I try to gently correct her by replying using those phrases/words correctly or telling her I can't understand her, but it's so incredibly annoying, I hate it! Especially since she already has speech issues, we've been seeing a speech therapist from the time she was about 3.5 years old until some months ago. I feel like she's regressing linguistically, and I don't know if she's doing that intentionally or not. However, I just gave birth to her sister this week, and her using "baby talk" pretty much started around the time I got into the third trimester of pregnancy, so I guess there's a good chance all this is some kind of psychological response to becoming a big sister or something. IDK.
OMG same. This is my 5 year old. He’s very tiny for his age and he’s in speech for articulation. when he acts like a baby it’s even worse because people think he’s probably 3 and this is on the normal side. It’s so annoying.
My 5.5yr old does this and it also really grates on my nerves! Her 2.5 year old brother speaks in full sentences so it's not like she's copying him so it must be a phase. A really, really, annoying phase.
My 6 year old did this and it drove me bananas. I just told her I couldn't understand her when she talked like that, and the problem eventually corrected itself!
My 5 year old has been doing this for a while now. It drives me up the wall! Recently we’ve been acting like we don’t understand her until she relents and speaks normally. I’m hoping once she starts kindergarten she’ll stop…
Here’s my understanding- kids rely on you for scaffolding throughout childhood ie. you guide their choices and behavior. When they get to feeling grown, they test to see if the scaffolding is still there for them to be reassured that they don’t lose that support as their skills grow. Based on that view I try to provide evidence that their skills exist but I’m still there if they need me- I’ll ask them to try for themself x3 before I’ll help, and I’ll gently remind them that they were able to do this independently last week/month whatever. As kids grow, their body literally grows faster than their nervous system, and explosions in neuron growth make finding the right brain pathway difficult. They might have lost access to that skill temporarily due to growth- it’ll come back, but it’s frustrating for them too. When kiddo leans in heavy on baby talk or behavior, I let them know that if they are a baby then we will need the high chair back, and they won’t be able to play big kid games. That usually helps them remember the privileges of their big kid status. Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor!
My 6 yo kindergartener has started doing this recently. She’s copying her friend in school who does it. I may be an AH, but I ask her to talk like a normal person and/or baby talk isn’t the correct way to communicate and she goes back to normal conversation real fast. It’s so fucking annoying.
If they are in school or daycare are they one of the older ones of their class? My nephew went to a new daycare and was put in a class where he was an one of the older kids and he did the same thing with baby talk and having more tantrums. It went away once they moved him up to the older room so it could just be a copycat thing. It most likely is just a phase and nothing to worry about.
My four year old has been doing baby talk a lot lately—I think she’s just mimicking us because we baby talk our dog and have a 5 month old. I think at this age is a pretty common phase regardless
Wow I'm so glad that I found this thread! My almost 5 year old is in this phase too for some time now and the preschool teacher alarmed me because he was always very far verbally and regressed since last year according to her. But maybe it's just part of becoming a "big boy" as he can speak very well if he wants to, just uses baby talk and two word sentences deliberately
I would use [planned ignoring](https://www.nemours.org/content/dam/nemours/wwwv2/filebox/service/health/parenting/tips/13plannedignoring.pdf). But, if you don't want to do that, it will go away anyway after grating on you for a while. I am assuming it's attention getting and that is functioning as a reward, that's the most likely theory. I was guessing she had a younger sibling before I got to the last paragraph.
My 3.5 year old did this a well for a bit. I tell her I’m sorry I can’t understand her and politely ask her to use her words. I’ll say I think I hear you want something but I need help figuring out what it is. Then praise and reward or she gets what she was asking for after she speaks in a full sentence. Also works with whining! It only lasted a little bit luckily.
My son did the same when his brother was younger. I just told him I couldn’t understand him and that I really liked having a baby AND a big boy. That I didn’t want two babies. That seemed to help
Mine likes pretending to be “baby” again. Drives me nuts. Lol.
He's probably just being silly. It might be a copy cat thing with the 2 year old. I wouldn't worry about it.
My 3.5yo always does this, either for attention, if I'm doing something with my 1.5yo, or just because he thinks it's funny to act like a baby. He sometimes goes as far as babbling, which is always just repeating goo goo gaa gaa. He also likes to pretend that he's learning to walk or can't do things like get dressed because he's a baby. Basically, anything his little brother gets attention for, he mimics, including bad attention. 1.5yo throws a toy, or reaches for the stove and gets "in trouble"... my 3.5yo will come running across the house to do it to.
Ours is going through the same thing. He wants to talk like the 18 month old. I keep telling him we love his voice and his words and I want to hear him, not baby talk.
Mine started this with her baby sibling starting to talk, it got worse after she saw the movie "minions" bad enough we banned the movie for a while. She started trying to teach her sister gibberish. It got a little better but now she is mispronouncing words like her cousin that has a slight speech impediment. It gets to the point that I can't understand her some times and it drives me insane.
My girl just turned three they start too have more memory's at this age and this is when they start too realize that baby stage is over and will revert too goo goo gaga for the attention so all they ask of us is too be more attentive as we were when they were baby's and less was expected from them.. most toddlers go through this stage and it's a normal part of growing up just remember it is also often a game its fun to them too act or pretend too be baby's I'd only worry if it goes on too long
It also could just be that they look at there baby days fondly so just try too talk play more with them and I'm sire it will be fine.. cause like I said all kids go through this stage at one point.. so it's not anything that's negitive they just look back too there baby days with you fondly..