Is anyone else annoyed that Baby Bear on Sesame is teaching our children to speak with an impediment?
Asked by
limegwri (
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)
September 17th, 2009
Baby bear is a semi-new character on Sesame Street that doesn’t pronounce his “Rs”. Is this some sort of speech strategy or learning style that I’m unaware of? Are there child development reasons for having a character with a speech impediment or is it just to teach our kids the wrong way of speaking?
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10 Answers
I doubt children are in danger of suddenly starting to talk like Baby Bear, unless that’s the only form of speech they hear. My kids all watched Sesame Street when they were little, and none of them started talking like Baby Bear, Elmo, or those Honker guys.
As an example, I know quite a few children whose parents aren’t originally from the US. Mom or Dad may have an accent, but their US-born children do not.
The reason behind Baby Bear’s speech impediment is probably just to go along with his babyish character. It isn’t uncommon for small children to speak the way Baby Bear does, but they typically outgrow it. Would you be concerned that a child watching Sesame Street might start to act like Oscar the Grouch? Develop an accent like the Count? I wish my kids were still interested in Sesame Street instead of Spongebob and Pokemon!
lol. no.
children would more likely mimic the way a close adult or older sibling talks.
Hello; I am an Audiologist with my Bachelor’s degree in Speech/Language Pathology.
The /r/ sound is difficult for some children to pronounce, and doesn’t develop until after 4–5 years of age for many children.
Having one character among dozens that uses baby talk will not influence children to speak incorrectly. It might help those who have some difficulty with speech articulation feel a bit less self-conscious.
In the real world, we are exposed to people with different speech patterns, from accents, speech impediments, regional and dialectal differences… the more we are exposed to those variances, we develop the ability to adapt to and process those differences.
@MissAusten I lurve you.
One of the great things about Sesame Street is that it models acceptance of all types of people (or monsters, I guess), including those with speech impediments.
Also, Sesame Street’s target audience has aged down considerably since the mid-1990s, and is now geared towards very young (1–3-year-old) children. Baby Bear is representative of how very young children speak, and is sort of a comforting presence for those viewers in that regard.
@limegwri If you’re interested in learning how children learn to speak, you could this or this. I have other things I’d say about Sesame Street, but they aren’t pertinent to this topic.
@MissAusten Lurve!
In Boston, we do not consider speaking without Rs to be an impediment.
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