We had never talked “baby talk” (“baff”, “walkies”) to our daughters. As a result, they grew up speaking well. However, sometimes my love of words and teaching them had funny results. Our older daughter & I had a fun game during bath-time. I’d ask her a question but, just as she was answering, I’d take a facecloth and scrub her mouth, making her speaking mumbly…then I’d “yell” at her for not speaking clearly. I’d tell her, “You need to enunciate!” She found this game hilarious. One day in kindergarten, for homework the kids had to “bring in a word from home”. They had to write it on a paper and explain the word to the class. Most of the other kids had words like “Cat”, “Ball” or “Home”…our girl brought “Enunciate”!
We had never talked “baby talk” (“baff”, “walkies”) to our daughters. As a result, they grew up speaking well. However, sometimes my love of words and teaching them had funny results. Our older daughter & I had a fun game during bath-time. I’d ask her a question but, just as she was answering, I’d take a facecloth and scrub her mouth, making her speaking mumbly…then I’d “yell” at her for not speaking clearly. I’d tell her, “You need to enunciate!” She found this game hilarious. One day in kindergarten, for homework the kids had to “bring in a word from home”. They had to write it on a paper and explain the word to the class. Most of the other kids had words like “Cat”, “Ball” or “Home”…our girl brought “Enunciate”!