I agree with Val on "dumbing down"-- I would choose to avoid that way of thinking about what's going on. Ultra's "codeswitching" is a more apt and more generous description.

Seen on Facebook, and adopted into my parenting wholesale:

"Before you speak, THINK:
is it True?
is it Helpful?
is it Inspiring?
is it Necessary?
is it Kind?"

Useful metric for when to speak up...

DeeDee