Don’t stop beliebing.  If you are thinking this is a post about Justin Bieber – leave.  Immediately.  We are going to talk about speech errors.  Because I am a speech pathologist, and it is what I do.

When kids learn new vocabulary words, they often produce them incorrectly.  Especially when those new vocabulary words have three or more syllables.  Think ambulance, spaghetti, delicious (my personal favorite).  These types of errors do not require speech therapy.  But even more importantly – THEY DO NOT REQUIRE CORRECTION!

Correcting your kids speech is the worst.  I find it super annoying when people correct my pronunciation, so think about how your three year old feels.  Just think how proud they are to use their brand new word, and then they get crushed like a bug.  Pretty sure they won’t be using that word again.

So how do we make sure our little one isn’t going into the word asking for more “pasghetti?”  You just model it.  “Oh yes, you want more spaghetti” is going to go over a lot easier than “It’s not pasgetti, it is spaghetti.”

So model, don’t correct.  It is not only the best way to teach the pronunciation – it is also a great way to teach them how not to be a know it all.  No one likes the know it all kid who corrects people’s pronunciation. Am I Right?