The Sweetest Mistake: How Pampering Can Shape a Child’s Speech.
Ritu Chopra, Speech TherapistNew Delhi [India], October 19: A child’s clear speech is not a gift of nature alone; it is built, sound by sound, by the people who love that child most.Picture a three-year-old running in, eyes shining, asking for “loti” when she means roti. The whole family melts and repeats it.No one is doing anything wrong; everyone is simply enjoying innocence. Yet that tender moment, repeated a hundred times, can plant a habit that follows the child into the classroom and beyond.The Charm Trap: When Pampering Locks In a MistakeA child learns language the way a sapling grows: by leaning towards the light. For a young child, that light is the face of a parent, a grandparent or a teacher.When the mispronounced word earns laughter and...