It can be amusing for parents to speak “babyeeze” to their little ones, often mimicking their child when she says a word incorrectly. Babies learning to
speak sound so cute and their mispronunciations often make us giggle. Between the ages of 3 and 6 when language is being tested and solidified by a child is the most vulnerable period of language aquisition.
Recent studies by Dutch researcher Lotte Henrichs suggests that speaking academically with your child instead of simplifying your speech patterns actually helps a child do better in school later in life.
Henrichs demonstrated that children are already confronted with academic language in the nursery school. They already hear a lot academic language from the teacher and are often expected to use academic language themselves. The extent to which academic language is used at home was found to differ strongly between families. An essential aspect is how parents approach their children during conversations. If children are given the opportunity to make meaningful contributions to conversations, they often use characteristics of academic language proficiency naturally. In addition to this, the knowledge of academic language depends on the extent to which parents read to their children, tell them stories and hold conversations about interesting subjects. - NWO.com
This may carry over to a polite correction of your child when he pronounces a word incorrectly. When I was growing up, as most children do, I misprounced common, long words like spaghetti (bascetti) and Popsicle (popsible). I also took to saying breakfast by switching the middle consonants to “brefkist”. My mother failed to correct me until I was 8 years old because she thought it was cute and couldn’t bring herself to tell me. Even more scarring was that I found out I had been pronouncing it incorrectly when a neighborhood friend had a sleepover at my house and I asked if she would like some “brefkist”, whereupon I was thoroughly embarrassed as my mother explained her reason for not correcting me sooner.
With every child I encounter, whether family or children of friends I have noticed a marked difference in their participation in the “adult” conversation when I speak to them as I would to my peers. Children live up to our expectations. Treat your child like an individual with ideas and thoughts to contribute and she will not only surprise you, but she may be better off in life both academically and socially.

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