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Show Succeddfui JPcirentkood nt4 m- CATHERINE CONRAD EDWARDS I Asaocioto Editor. Parent." MaaasiM t it . -""fit i n. U; of Slang by Tots Not To Be Condemned RADIO MAN installed two new loud speakers hi a friends radio last week. He explained that the smaller was for the high notes the tweeter and the larger for the bass the woofer. You can Imagine how the children enjoyed this new vocabulary vo-cabulary and told everyone about their woofer and tweeter. Children love slang, and savor its color and imagery. Most slang makes for brighter Speech. tSSSS. And a wide vocabu-y vocabu-y 'ary literary or rSim fvHOVs 3lanS means a more 5gf fluent child. Slang, i'ffc'' " 00 helP th fc youn8ster fM' he is JjjsaS ne of the gang. 'jgS Being in the know, he uses "All reef oday instead of yesterday's "Roger" or our generation's "Okay." There s the slang of Jiva and of sports, if aviation, the sea, and radio. Bor-owing Bor-owing from these Jargons Into everyday ev-eryday language gives a child a trong brisk vocabulary and pleases lim too because it indicates he is eally in the know. Two kinds of slang, though, are ilways a problem to parents. The amous foQr-letter words, Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon and otherwise, find their way into many a toddler's tongue, shock ing grandmothers and embarrassing mothers. These shocks can be kept to a minimum by quietly censoring adult speech around our highly imitative im-itative children. If objectionable expressions ex-pressions are brought home from outside, tactful explanation will help far more than making children feel they've been either cute or naughty. Another help will be to foster as substitutes some Innocent blustering expletives, satisfying the need for occasional dramatics. dramat-ics. Another slang problem that parents pa-rents have to be alert to catch is the word that hurts others. Racial and religious nicknames are rarely intended with ill-will, but almost everyone Is sensitive when on the receiving end. Here again, parents have the difficult assignment of setting set-ting a good example, and of calm patient explanation. Pointing out your children's own ancestral background, back-ground, and the resulting epithets which might come their way, will probably halt this kind of name-calling. name-calling. Her is a real pruning job for parents: pa-rents: to take out the damaging , slang, both the vulgaritla and the I name-calling, and yet leave the pic- I turesque patter which enriches a child's speech, adds to his fun with words, and broadens his Imaginative Imagina-tive horizons. |