Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school gifted 4 year old with severe baby talk

If you sense that she's actually losing language skills then I would take her post-haste to the pediatrician and get a speech assessment or an assessment for ASD.

Don't mean to diagnose - just when someone says their child's language skills changed in a regressive way when they were a toddler, my ASD antennae quiver.

Oddities of speech that seem "out of her control" should be taken seriously in my opinion. I think some of the suggestions offered have been really good ones and you should try them but if they don't work it may be time to consider alternative explanations.

You know your daughter's personality and what works with her better. In general I find with our child more honest information is better.

"I found out something interesting - it is actually really common for four year olds to like to play that they are younger and talk like they are younger. Being four can be a time of feeling both big and small at the same time and that can be kind of confusing to sort out. What kind of things can you do now that you are four that you couldn't do when you were a baby?... I realized that what might work well is for us to compromise a bit...." Then, practice a bit the difference between the way babies talk and using a preschooler voice (or whatever you want to call it) and say that you are going to be more open to playing baby some of the time and sometimes you are going to ask for her to use her strong voice (or whatever you are calling it). We talked about compromise with our preschooler and it was something he could understand.

For us it seems if we've put that time into having a real discussion often it makes the in the moment stuff easier. If you've already talked about it and agreed on a way to describe the voice, you'll be ready to just give her a small reminder and not get into a big discussion.

Good luck and tell yourself enthusiastic baby play will make it go away sooner. Also, this is a really obvious thing but if she doesn't already have a baby doll and accessories that might be a good purchase. You could even play twins where she's one baby and the doll is another. If the doll prop is there she may transition to the mom role sometimes too, but I wouldn't push that, it'll happen eventually.

rlsnights ... you are absolutely right about the regression in speech linked to ASD but I really think what is being described is more of a phase for attention then anything else. Now things to be on the look out for is words that she used in the past disappearing from her vocabulary and new words in the place of those... such as the nugget example... if she could always say nuggets and reverts to a baby word and only uses that or similar words to ask for the nuggets and has lost the word nugget altogether than yes it is a red flag for possible ASD. But as it has been described she seems to be play acting in a baby state and uses the baby talk during that time period and if that is how she is behaving it really is more about a phase. Has there been any thing big and new in her life? Might be a new school or a close friend to her has moved away and of course a new addition to the family and again it can just be as PTP and Neato described about the age and realizing they are becoming a 'big' girl/boy and exploring the 'little' girl/boy category.

hey all
thank you for being conerned about ASD. But what i was describing was more about regressing in school, not real language regression, which remains remarkably astute for her age. When she is not doing baby talk she's fantastic (i actually googled split personality i am so conerned). The school she goes to is MOntessori so it is easy for her (during the regression period i noted) to sit in the "pracical life" corner with the three year olds.She was getting a lot of attention for her advanced reading skills and was trying to blend in more with the others. After a teacher change that problem is resolved and she quickly moved back to the "Top" of the class.

and katelynsmom- really no changes in her life, its been going on since she was only two so its almost three years now, ebbing at times, but coming on really strong lately. My gut is that its a fear of growing up and she's been feeling it for so long because internally she has been "grown up" earlier than she should have been.

Tomorrow we have first session wiht a child psychologist. I will keep you posted what he says.


irene

You may want to try tracking the behavior and see if you can identify a pattern to it or a trigger of some kind. Given your further description, it certainly sounds like it could be an expression of anxiety. So finding the trigger(s) or pattern might be very helpful.

I hope the child psych you're going to see is familiar with gifted kids and their special needs/issues. If you're not sure, you may want to get very specific in asking about his qualifications in that area - how many gifted or 2E children has he treated, any special training or education he has in that area. Even if you know this person, you may want to find out exactly what kinds of services he provides (treatment only, testing/assessment too or what?), if he only does treatment, who does he refer families to when he feels testing is needed and what child psychiatrists he works with when he feels a child needs a referral for medication or more complex diagnosis. You may never need this information but it's not a bad idea to get it ahead of time.

Our DD6 went through this too. I think it was definitely linked to her realizing that she could speak better than everyone else at her preschool. In fact, she could imitate all of the other students with their particular accents too! (We were living overseas at the time). We went to speaking in these other accents as an alternative to her baby talk. It helped some, but didn't compeltely make it go away. Even now she does it sometimes, but if she notices I'm getting irritated with her she will say "I suppose I should probably stop talking like a baby now so you don't go crazy, right Mom?"

kerry
come to think of it, the baby talk escalated last summer when she started coming home from summer camp and was constantly imitating the "cute" speech impediment of one of the girls in her camp group. Her group was called tHe "Wish Bears" and she would say it without the "R"..I am wondering now if she is also seeking that type of "aww she's cute" reaction that she never gets. Her actual big girl voice sometimes makes adults uncomfortable as they are expecting a little girl and she actually sounds much older. The psych estimated her social skills and language at 7 to 8 years and she is only 4. I get the feeling, even from her preschool teachers (which is why we moved her) that she might not be liked as much as the other children, tends to question them, gives them a hard time, and tells us when they have "off-line" conversations amongst themeselves in class when they think the kids aren't listening. So that might all play into this.


we did change our attitute yesterday and feel we are out of the baby talk "war" - told her its ok and we'll do it as a fun activity. She asked for it twice yesterday and in general i think it increased a bit overall for the day (testing us?) but this morning she was great and did not even ask... holding my breath what happens later on when i pick her up.
irene

Sounds like you have a good beat on what's going on. Hopefully it is just a stage and what you describe seems to be pretty normal, especially for HG(+) girls who want to fit in. At least that's been my experience. I would be more concerned if she's still doing it at 7 or 8. At that age, I'm thinking the baby talk will NOT be accepted by peers, if she's still doing it and possibly even getting teased for it, I'd definitely look further into it.