There is nothing as adorable as a babbling, cooing, lisping baby. But when you're five year old lapses into baby talk, it's not cute - it's revolting and annoying. Yet this is quite a common happening.
Many parents report that their children suddenly regress back to cutesy-pie, whiny baby language.
Children labour under the misapprehension that it will trigger off an outpouring of love and affection from their parents. While this is usually not the case, as parents tend to react as they would to an annoying buzzing fly, it is attention-getting, even if the attention is negative. This regressive behaviour in the language department is usually triggered off by some environmental factors that are disturbing the child. There are many possibilities. Some children feel threatened by the arrival of a new baby and think that baby talk is one way of clinging onto their position as baby of the family.