The cute stuff: They say things funny

Many of us adopt at least one word our children create in the early years when they've got "Mommy" and "Daddy" down pat but aren't quite ready to deliver the keynote address at a major convention. Examples are endless. For Ina Zucker, mom of Maxine, in Portland, Oregon, the word was "swergil." "It was much cuter than 'squirrel,'" Zucker says. Cindy May, a mother of two in Arlington, Virginia, loves that her son, Winston, has always been full of great "didillas"  -- his take on "ideas."

What's happening The creation of words involves not only the high-level thinking necessary to translate sounds we hear into sounds we make but also some rather sophisticated dexterity with the tongue and lips. Young kids understand and try to duplicate speech long before they have the physical ability to reproduce what they hear, says Steven Warren, Ph.D., director of the Schiefelbusch Institute for Lifespan Studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

"That's what babbling is about early on," he says. "It's your baby trying to make the sounds she's hearing. And that's why she mispronounces words later on." So if a child like Maxine can't create the combination "k" and "w" sound of the "qu" in squirrel, she'll substitute something else  -- an easier placeholder until her knowledge and motor skills are more complete. When the mouth, lips, and tongue are ready to make the "qu" sound, they will. In the meantime, don't under-estimate the power of a well-placed "w."

How to help Your child hears speech in the house and out of it, so you're not her only language teacher. You likely are her main conversation partner, though, so it's here that you can help her learn to express herself.

The best way to handle common mispronunciations is to show that you understand what your child's trying to say. If you're at the zoo and your child points and yells "Bar!" "you could respond: 'Yes, that's a very big bear,'" Warren says, "expanding the conversation, repeating the word correctly, and making sure your child knows you read her loud and clear." There's no need to focus on your child's error or correct her. She'll get it eventually just by listening to other people. You want to encourage her to feel comfortable saying what's on her mind and in her heart, no matter how she pronounces it.

And there's no harm in adopting the occasional "bloke," either.

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