Kids begin to swear around the age of 4.  Not really, but they do use phrases like you are a “pooh, pooh head” and “I don’t like you anymore” and “You are the meanest mom”.
Translated into teen language you know what “pooh, pooh head,” means, oh, yes it’s SH*T HEAD.  So if you don’t want your kids to think this is an OK way to talk to their parents, don’t let them use these words in the pre-school years.

Even younger kids will experiment with words, just to see how that communication style will work.  They get answers to their questions about whether their parents talk back to them, do their parents smile or frown when they use these words or do they get no response what so ever.  All this teaches kids if they should continue to use these phrases or try new ones.

So when your kids use words and phrases you do want them to repeat, call that kind of communication something, like the “Corwin voice or words”.  You probably don’t want to use Corwin because that is my last name, so use your own!  Anyway, you get the point, kids need to be able to identify with 100% accuracy what words get lots of communication from their parents and which ones don’t. 

Then when they use words that are not so appropriate, make sure you immediately don’t look at your child and don’t talk back to them.  If they are around the age of 4 or older be sure to tell them before hand that when they use certain words, you are not going to talk back to them and whatever they are doing or asking for stops if they decide to use those unacceptable words.

The bottom line is help your kids learn how to talk to you, so their experiment with words tells them exactly what they get when they talk to you!

Keep talking, so your kids become great communicators, Dr. Ann Corwin