Children’s Dialogue: They Don’t Talk Like Adults

Image: young girl wearing an adult-sized suit, sitting at an office desk and holding a telephone receiver.
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Today’s post is by developmental book editor Jessi Rita Hoffman (@JRHwords).


Are you struggling with the task of writing children’s dialogue? Some of the worst dialogue ever written, in both film and fiction, has been dialogue for kids. We all know children are not just miniature grownups—they don’t think like adults or talk like adults. Yet writers seem to forget that when they go to write a story and place words in the mouths of child characters that real kids never would say.

Here is one example, from a novel I’m editing for a first-time author. For the most part, this client’s dialogue writing is spot-on—it sounds like real people talking—but when he has Matthew, the two-year-old, speak, we find the kid spouting sentences like this one: “So we’re moving today?” A two-year-old, mind you!

Not only do tots of this age not possess enough life experience to understand the meaning of “moving today,” but their level of speech development is not advanced and refined enough to construct such a sentence. A more realistic way of showing a two-year-old’s confusion on moving day would be to have him crying over something small that normally would not upset him, or showing aggression toward the baby, whom on most days he loves. If words are even needed here, “Me not go” or “Matthew stay home” would be far more realistic than the adult words the author has stuck in this little boy’s mouth.

Very young children have a limited vocabulary. They speak in simple sentences or small sentence fragments. They are developmentally incapable of grasping abstract concepts, speaking in abstractions, or constructing fancy sentences, according to psychologists. They typically don’t know the “correct,” abstract word for a concept (such as “moving”) and instead use a substitute, concrete word that they do understand (such as “go”). And don’t forget that when authors write dialogue for characters of any age, accuracy doesn’t mean writing grammatically—it means writing the words the way the character would actually say them, whether that’s grammatical or not.

Let’s look at another example of unrealistic children’s dialogue from a different beginning author, who writes this about a six-year-old:

“Daddy, can you make me some lunch?” Anna called from the hammock. She lazily threw her arm over her face in hopes of shielding out some of the heat.

These words sound far too adult for a six-year-old. Moreover, a child of that age doesn’t have the conceptual capacity to intellectually plan out that putting her arm over her face might make her feel cooler. She would put her arm in front of her face instinctively, not consciously. (In hopes of shielding out some of the heat implies conscious intent).

Here is how I would rewrite that paragraph:

“Daddy, I’m hungry.” The sun shone down, and it felt hot. She covered her face with her arms.

Let’s look at one last example from the same manuscript. This time the six-year-old is telling a friend about her mother abandoning the family. She states:

“I heard Daddy talking, and he said it was just a matter of time before this happened. He said Mama couldn’t get away fast enough. She was just looking for the right time.”

But a six-year-old would never say that. Look at the complex sentence construction of the first sentence. And observe the conceptual complexities of “just a matter of time” and “looking for the right time.” An eleven-year-old might say this, not a very little girl.

To understand what kids are capable of thinking and saying at different ages, familiarize yourself with the four stages of cognitive development described by renowned child psychologist Jean Piaget. And if you’re writing a story with a child character, take time to really listen to how kids of that age talk. Make listening part of your research, and be as diligent about that as you are about researching any factual material you will include in your story.

Writing children’s dialogue does not have to be the downfall of your novel. The lines you pen will reflect reality if you let real children be your guide.

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Cindy Redding

Very good article. Thanks

Jessi Rita Hoffman

Glad to know you enjoyed it!

Robbie Cheadle

You have raised some good points in this article.

V.M. Sang

Valuable points to remember. I have a couple of 3 year olds in my current WIP. I hope I’ve not got them talking like adults, but also,not like 2 year olds, either.