Is this speech pattern a "boy thing"...?

[Magpie]

My 13yo son has an interesting way of putting his words together, and I'm curious as to whether this is just how boys talk or if it's a little bit of his learning disability coming to the fore.

For instance yesterday I heard him say to a friend, "How is he still your friend? Yeah, but you’re... you’re not treating him with the best of kindness."

Or another time he might say, "I’m guessing by you’re saying this that you’re..."

He uses very convoluted, ungrammatical sentences. I often find myself staring at him and saying, "Can you get to the point? I don't understand where you're going with this."

It comes out in his writing too. I have to go through his papers with a virtual weed-whacker before he turns them in, editing them for clarity.

It's totally different when he's playing games online with his friends, but I strongly suspect that when he says, "Let's raze this building to the ground!" he's parroting phrases from the game. At any other time it would come out as, "We should definitely that building raze it to the ground."

So... typical boy stuff, or part of his learning disability? I'm not worried, just curious.

 

[Cinderella94]

My 12 year old brother doesn't speak like this. But I have no idea if I'd call it a learning disability.

 

[minkydog]

I hear a lot of middle schoolers talking this way. I think part of it is their brains grow unevenly while they're going through puberty. Also, they are exposed to a lot more people and ideas than ever before and they often try on speech patterns and attitudes for size.Matter of fact, I hear adults talk in that very convoluted pseudo-educated style. Maybe they think they sound impressive. Hopefully, in time your son will get his brain and his tongue in sync

 

[jeepgirl30]

For instance yesterday I heard him say to a friend, "How is he still your friend? Yeah, but you’re... you’re not treating him with the best of kindness."

Or another time he might say, "I’m guessing by you’re saying this that you’re..."

So... typical boy stuff, or part of his learning disability? I'm not worried, just curious.

It seems to me he is a very thoughtful boy and trying hard to be descriptive. I remember in school papers were all about word count and length.

Also we were taught to write our answers completely by incorporating part of the answer. I see my DD10 starting to do this now. Also my DS8 always tries to use his spelling words or vocab words in everyday. It sometimes comes out really funny because it just doesn't seem to fit. I can't think of the last one but I remember asking "oh is that one of your vocabulary words this week?".

My DS is a talker and likes to say things like more better. When we correct him he insists he means MORE than just better. He knows it isn't correct but wants to express himself.

I would rather hear a kid over explain and use too many words than hear a 1/2 word answer like "k" when you ask "how was your day?"!

 

[WDWMom]

Possibly both. Be happy he talks. I have one son who mustly grunts

My boys are 15 months apart in age (I don't recommend this BTW) and one is more verbal than the other. The one who is not so verbal talks like your DS sometimes, but has gotten much better in the past couple years. He is now 15.5 and also has a learning disability.

 

[SAHDad]

My 13yo son has an interesting way of putting his words together, and I'm curious as to whether this is just how boys talk or if it's a little bit of his learning disability coming to the fore.

For instance yesterday I heard him say to a friend, "How is he still your friend? Yeah, but you’re... you’re not treating him with the best of kindness."

Or another time he might say, "I’m guessing by you’re saying this that you’re..."

He uses very convoluted, ungrammatical sentences. I often find myself staring at him and saying, "Can you get to the point? I don't understand where you're going with this."

It comes out in his writing too. I have to go through his papers with a virtual weed-whacker before he turns them in, editing them for clarity.

It's totally different when he's playing games online with his friends, but I strongly suspect that when he says, "Let's raze this building to the ground!" he's parroting phrases from the game. At any other time it would come out as, "We should definitely that building raze it to the ground."

So... typical boy stuff, or part of his learning disability? I'm not worried, just curious.

My son is younger, but he does the same thing. I have been known to do it, usually when I am talking before I have finished with the actual thought. I know a few women who do it as well.

FWIW - "razing a building to the ground" is redundant. Razing would mean to make the building level with ground. OTOH, casual speech is full of verbal redundancies.

 

[goofyernmost]

It all seemed fine to me. Language is communication...if he is communicating he is doing exactly what it was designed. Everyone has a different way of expressing themselves. I understood what he was saying.

"We should definitely that building raze it to the ground."
This is the only one that I found questionable and that sounds like a situation that wasn't thought out before speaking. No big deal.

 

[Magpie]

It all seemed fine to me. Language is communication...if he is communicating he is doing exactly what it was designed. Everyone has a different way of expressing themselves. I understood what he was saying.

"We should definitely that building raze it to the ground."
This is the only one that I found questionable and that sounds like a situation that wasn't thought out before speaking. No big deal.

Thanks! I think that's exactly what's happening. He starts speaking before his thoughts have completely caught up to what he wants to say.

A lot of the time it sounds like he's assembling his nouns, then he'll work on adding in the verbs and clauses.

But like I said, I'm not worried. He gets his meaning across just fine. I was just curious. It makes sense when you (and some of the pps, too) put it like that. I'm glad to know he's not the only one, too!

 

[NAB]

I read that 13 is another time where they can learn things fast like age 4.

That being said my 13 year old is always forgetting words. Just now he asked me if I know what that thing was that you put your glasses in, he meant his case. He said he does this a lot , yesterday he forgot what a microwave was, knew what it did but counldn't get the word.

 

[marcyinPA]

My DS15 can get pretty wordy at times. He also gets tongue tied a lot...he just can't seem to string two words together! There have been many times that I have told him to think about what he wants to say first.

My DS11 is VERY articulate, and comes out with things that are grammatically perfect, but he's been known to make me blush with embarrassment.

I don't know which would be worse!