Well grandma spends 9 hours a day with him, so he will learn most from them. They talk to him like hes dumb.?

Question

I love them, but seeing how he is in contact with them 90 percent of the time, I worry that he will pick up most of his verbal skills from them.

Answer 1

How old is he? Normally, people talk to babies that way in hopes that they will be easier for him to understand. If he is below 2 yrs. old, I don't think this will do any harm. But if you're not satisfied with the situation, you may want to find a more "suitable" babysitter. If so, you can also reason with Grandma that you've decided to put him in a playgroup where he can do more activities and interact with other children. No hard feelings.

Answer 2

If you are that worried about it then you need to find other child care. Or just tell the grandparents that you don't want them to talk down to him. He will pick up most of his verbal skills from them.

Answer 3

I wouldn't worry too much about your baby's verbal skills getting damaged by being around baby talk. Your child will also learn from you and others in his life. However, I think it is important to talk to your baby's grandparents and tell them that you understand how incredibly CUTE and cuddly your baby is, and how it brings out the silly talk in a lot of grown ups. Then you could talk to them about using SOME normal "grown up" talk around him as well, once his speech gets to the point that he is talking and repeating things. In my experience, once babies start to form words, and repeat things, grown ups tend to lay off the baby talking. There are studies that show babies enjoy the cooing and such of grown ups when they are young. I wouldn't put too much pressure on gramma and gramps to stop just yet. Try to think of ONE grown up that YOU know who still talks like a baby. Bet you can't. Chances are, your baby will not be harmed in his verbal ability by any of this.

Answer 4

He's only three months old. I think he'll survive the baby talk. If you are that concerned, pay for daycare.

Seriously, baby talk has been shown to help develop language, because it maintains attention with it's high pitch and cadence. As he gets older, the instinct to babytalk disappears. He will learn from people all around him how to speak.