Overuse of "Like"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It drives me nuts too. I ask DD to "Say that again, without all the likes" sometimes, or will interrupt her and say "You've now said 'like' four times and still haven't gotten out the gist of the sentence. Take a breath, think about what you want to say, THEN spit it out."

If she could codeswitch I would be okay with that. So far (7th grade) she doesn't seem capable of that. Jeans in 90 degree weather sounds awful!

Yes, she is. Explain the idea to her. You can even do some role-playing -- "Tell me [something] as though I were your friend. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your teacher. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your grandmother." Or you can show her how you do it, because you do it too. Everybody does.

I already did. She found it so difficult that she gave up on speaking. And this is a kid who never shuts up. I'll try again, but right now, she's not capable of it.

This is not a bad thing. So she will learn to pause before she speaks to make sure it's not there. Perhaps in the beginning that will be a very long pause but if she likes to talk, she'll figure it out. Right now, she's not capable of it, but I'm sure she's capable of starting the process.

I pick my battles. She's in seventh grade and right now my priority is to keep lines of communication open. I don't want her to give up on telling me what's going on with her friends and school because I'm giving her so much shit about saying "like."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It drives me nuts too. I ask DD to "Say that again, without all the likes" sometimes, or will interrupt her and say "You've now said 'like' four times and still haven't gotten out the gist of the sentence. Take a breath, think about what you want to say, THEN spit it out."

If she could codeswitch I would be okay with that. So far (7th grade) she doesn't seem capable of that. Jeans in 90 degree weather sounds awful!

Yes, she is. Explain the idea to her. You can even do some role-playing -- "Tell me [something] as though I were your friend. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your teacher. OK, now tell me the same thing as though I were your grandmother." Or you can show her how you do it, because you do it too. Everybody does.

I already did. She found it so difficult that she gave up on speaking. And this is a kid who never shuts up. I'll try again, but right now, she's not capable of it.

Does she understand the idea, but she just can't do it, or does she not understand the idea?

She understands but can't do it for more than a sentence or two. She has So! Much! To! Tell! Me! and the words are just bubbling out of her mouth at warp speed. As I said to the other poster, this is not my priority right now. At 12.5 my priority is to keep our lines of communication open so she tells me what's going on in her world, where friends are becoming more important than Mom.