Ugh - at the most annoying and inappropriate times - like when we're having dinner with guests who ask him a question:

"Matthew, what do you want to eat?"

And he answers bysaying loudly "Cho cha bocka!"

What to do? I think he's doing it to get attention? With the new baby (3 months old) is this a form of regression? Or acting out to get attention?

HELP!

This might sound silly, but can you just not ask him questions? Our kids sometimes do this in a performance anxiety kind of way.

Another thought- we completely ignore imappropriate responses. If DS or DD did what you described, we would just make them a plate as if they answered with no comment one way or another.

It sounds a little annoying, but I can see how it would be funny to a kid.

He's looking for attention, and to a 4 year old it's funny, I would ignore it for now. Maybe talk to him about it when guests aren't there about how no one will understand him, but don't pus it or you may actually reinforce it. he'll stop on his own.

zoey does this too. she t hinks its hysterical.

we tell her to "stop speaking in tongues now and answer in english". lol.

She says 'naka naka noo noo' alot. not sure why , but she thinks its the funniest phrase ever.

I call her monkey princess now a days cuz she's all about monkey sounds.

mostly we laugh at her , tell our gues we're sorry Zoey is not speaking english right now so we'll have to just ignore her til she decides to speak to us in a language we can understand.

our guests are usually just friends and family so they understand and say "wow, i hope she will speak english soon cuz she sure is fun to talk to"

i think its a totally normal phase and its for attention and .. well.. sometimes it is pretty funny

I agree that it must be an age thing, my nearly 4 year old does this all the time.

I generally tell him, "I can't understand that." If he persists, I either ignore it, or more recently, tell him that it's rude to speak so others can't understand you. We've been concentrating a lot on not being rude, so he usually shapes right up. :)

Michelle

Liam does this too around guests and also just around us at times. Aside from wanting attention I think he has a hard time getting out his sentences when he's excited or nervous so he uses his "language" to make up for the gaps in his English. We ignore it when he's being innapropraite, or casually pull him aside and explain that he's out of line.

p.s. enjoying the tea:)