Why Does My Child Say “WaWa” & “BaBa”? {And is it Normal?}

Welcome to the first post in my new long term series “Why Does My Child___? {And is it normal?}” For more information about this series and how you can help contribute, read the intro post HERE. 

I remember a couple years ago a friend of mine was talking about how she wondered why her son said “wa wa” for the word water when she herself only referred to water as, well, water. I didn’t go into the why then, but I’ve been noticing that my own son Ev, 23 months, has been doing a lot of this speech pattern lately and I thought it would make a great first post in my new series. So…..

What is a Phonological Process?

If you’ve been following along for a while, you may have read some of my posts on phonological processes, delays, and treatment. What is a phonological process? Here is a quote from my post on Phonological Processes and Phonological Delays:

They are the typical patterns of how a child simplifies his speech (so “normal” speech sound errors) as they learn to speak. A child is not born being able to produce all the sounds and sound patterns of his/her language. As a child is learning how to speak English, he will simplify sounds and sound patterns. For example, a young child will simplify the word “bottle” to something like “baba.” A young child may also say “goggie” for “doggie,” “sue” for “shoe,” or “nail” for “snail.” Phonological processes, then, are the normal patterns of simplification all children use as they are learning to speak. Just like articulation skills, every child will develop their phonology skills differently, but there are ages when a child should stop using different phonological processes.

So as you can see, it is normal for young children to simplify their speech as they are learning. Eventually though, children will stop simplifying their speech and will learn to speak like the adults around them.

So Why Does my Kid Say “Wawa?” Then?

Your child says “wawa” for water, “baba” for bottle because he does not yet have the skills to say “water” and “bottle” so he uses the phonological process of reduplication to simplify the word. Reduplication is when your child repeats a syllable or part of a syllable of the word he wants so say. It doesn’t always have to be the first syllable either! My son Ev, 23 months, uses this process a lot in his speech. For example, our dog’s name is Ainsley, but he calls him “zee-zee.” He is using the final syllable of the dogs name (minus the “l” because he can’t say it yet) and repeating it to say “zee-zee” for Ainsley.

Is It normal?

This process is completely normal in toddlers! So don’t sweat it! It is a normal part of speech development. However, we typically see this process go away around age three.

What words do YOUR child simplify in this way? I want to hear!