Language Lessons

I know from some of the reading I've done on language development and acquisition that when a child mispronounces a word, you should say it back to her correctly in a sentence so that she hears the right sounds and context.  But, sometimes, we find ourselves using the words that Shay mispronounces in the way he pronounces them.  I don't know whether we're reinforcing his notion that a banana is really a "nana," or whether he really thinks he IS saying "banana," and wonders why we're being silly and calling it a "nana."

One of these words is "Bapa."  My parents decided they wanted to be called "Grandma" and "Grandpa," so we referred to them that way until Shay was about 18 months and started calling them "Bapa" and "Bapa."  For a while, we said the names back to him correctly, until he eventually began calling them "Grrrandma" (with a nice French rolling 'r') and "Bapa."  So, we know he can do the 'g' and the 'r' sound together for "Grandma," but he still goes with "Bapa" for his grandpa.  None of us can quite figure out whether my dad is just "Bapa" now, or whether we should still push to correct it into Grandpa.

Another one is "dickle."  One of Shay's first words was more like a repeating sound of "c" and "l", referring to bicycles, tricycles, and motorcycles: "clclclclclclclclclclclclclclc!!!!" he would yell, whenever one drove/rode by.  We would reply, "Yes, a motorcycle! Wow!" and he would respond "clclclclclclclclclclclclc!"  Eventually, he began calling them all "dickle."  One of his most treasured toys is a beat-up little plastic motorcycle toy, and when he can't find it, he'll ask, "dickle?"  I find myself responding, "I don't know where your dickle is.  Where did you see it last?"  Just a moment ago, he cried out in his crib and when I went in to check on him, he whined, mournfully, "dickle" and pointed down in between his crib and the wall.  Toys end up there a lot, and it's a hard spot for me to reach, so I told him Daddy would get it.  I came out of the room and found myself telling Patrick, "you're on dickle rescue duty. It's between the crib and the wall."  Through the baby monitor, I heard Patrick retrieve the toy and give it to Shay, telling him, "You have to be careful with your dickle. Don't throw it out of your crib."  I know we should be working harder to correct this one, before he winds up at school talking about his dickle and I get called into the principal's office.

What do you do, do you correct your kids when they mispronounce words? Or do you adopt their words into a special family lingo?