How do you correct slang or other improper grammar in a pre-schooler?
In our particular cast, our three year old son has developed a habit of responding "uh-huh" instead of "yes", and "uh-uh" instead of "no".
This makes it really hard to understand which he's saying at times, since they sound so very similar.
I would suspect that the strategies and answers to this issue might be more widely applicable, though, so I'd like to include slang or other grammar issues.
What is the best strategy to correct this and encourage clear, grammaticaly correct speech?
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Peers count for a lot. You can expect them to talk like their peers. Ref. In Raising Bebe, the author had a funny story about her toddler learning to cuss (with French toddler cuss words) from her peers at pre-school.
Modeling counts, while you can not expect them to understand immediately which contexts to use whqt, they will eventually use the right register (level of formality, mix of formal and slang) in the right situation. If you accidentally speak in an informal register, (even once!) you can expect to be copied.
And finally, kids talk to communicate. They pick strategies that result in them getting what they want-- they are too young to be language purists or to think that an informal register is easier or whatever. If you act obtuse as if you don't understand uh-huh and uh-uh, they will get the message quick and stop doing it around you. No need to scold or praise, just act the way you do with any other utterance that you can't make sense of.
I agree with @jeremy but with a slight adaptation. As @jeremy suggested, start the first few times with "I'm sorry, I didn't understand you." This is good to let them know that slang or poor articulation isn't adequate to communicate. However, at some point you have to transition your child to prompting themselves less you get stuck in a cycle of prompting them every time. So the next step is to simply pause until they realize that you're waiting for them to use "yes" or "no". This can be difficult and at first because your child will be confused why you're staring at them and not responding. If that is a difficult step then try shortening the phrase to "I'm sorry?". Then transition to acting like you didn't hear their response and wait for a proper response.
I use a form of this approach in therapy with children; I'm a Speech Therapist and have found the method effective with my own children.
With our 3 year old the problem was slightly different. We couldn't get her to ask for things using "please" and "thank you". So when she would ask for something we would initially pause and occasionally we would throw in "How do we ask nicely?" then we would just politely ignore her question and sure enough, after a brief pause, she would realize we weren't listening and she would ask with "please" and follow up with "thank you".
Good luck!
The approach we took with our child was and is to just ask for clarification, or casually correct the word. she responds to something with "uh-huh" and I reply either "I can't understand you, can you please say yes or no?" or if I was sure of her reply, "How about yes?"
I have found that making a huge big deal out of it is not especially productive.
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