What’s that accent? Screens are changing how Generation Alpha Aussie kids speak
Heard a kid talk lately and thought their accent sounds a little ... weird? Some Aussie parents say children are losing their Aussie twang thanks to an endless diet of TikTok videos.
The next generation of Australian children may not sound Australian at all, as Gen Alpha kids develop unusual speech patterns and accents from excessive screen time.
Gen Z TikToker Vivian Peterson recently went viral after sharing her theory on what she calls the “Gen Alpha accent”.
In her video, which has around four million views, she noted how many Gen Alphas speak nasally with lisps – but most don’t have a speech impediment.
“It’s so strange and I don’t know if its because of the iPads or the unrestricted internet access ... but the younger Gen Alpha in elementary school right now, they all have lisps and they’re all very nasally,” she said.
It didn’t take long for others to chime in, with many chalking it up to a lack of phonics education, and learning disruptions during the pandemic combined with excessive screen-time.
“They get handed an iPad or sat in front of a TV and that’s how they learn language,” one user wrote.
Siblings Eva, 15, and Elroy Markkula-Leafe, 14, know all too well about TikTok-speak spilling into their Gen Alpha speaking patterns.
“I would say I’ve seen a difference in the way we speak,” Eva said.
Words like ‘literally’ pronounced without emphasis on enunciation and sounding more like ‘lit-rally’, is one that Elroy pointed out as a common pick-up from TikTok.
But it isn’t limited to speech patterns, with Australian parents taking to Reddit to share their concerns about their children adopting foreign accents from influencers online.
“I can notice my seven-year-old Aussie daughter sounds American when she watches too much YouTube Kids,” one parent wrote.
Another parent said their 15-year-old speaks with an American accent, expressing their regret that they hadn’t “nipped it (in) the bud when it first started”.
Flinders University Bachelor of Speech pathology co-ordinator Catherine Linnett-Young said it was common for children to copy speech from others.
“The quality of the interactions that (children) have with their primary caregivers is going to be the biggest influence on their communication skill development,” the pediatric speech pathologist said.
“Once children start having that exposure to screen time, they will be exposed to accents other than those that are dominant around them.
“Some will start imitating some of those accents, which is a very normal thing we do as humans.”
Rather than criticise children for speaking differently, she encouraged parents to have constructive conversations.
“It’s helpful to point out they might be saying something differently, not as a correction or punishment, but simply, ‘oh, it’s interesting that you’re saying that word that way, I wonder where you heard that’,” she said.
“The important thing is that we’ve got caregivers who can help children make sense of what they’re copying, and that everybody is different and we’ve all got different ways of sounding.”
Have you noticed accents changing in your children or grandchildren? Leave a comment below or email us at education@news.com.au
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Originally published as What’s that accent? Screens are changing how Generation Alpha Aussie kids speak
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