Can pronoun reversal be normal in a 24 month old?

[micromama]

My DD just turned 2 last week. Her speech is very good -- hundreds of words, nice long sentences, etc. However, she mixes up my/your and me/mine/yours/you a lot. She gets 'I' right most of the time if she starts a sentence with it "I'm doing this" or "I want <whatever>" but sometimes her sentences come out like, "I want to put your shoes on" (when she means I want to put my shoes on). Everything I read on the Internet makes it sound like this kind of reversal is very rare in typically developing kids and points to the spectrum.

I was so worried about it (plus the fact that she IS kind of shy around other kids-- observant and watchful, but slow to warm) that we recently had her evaluated. I was told she exhibited no signs of spectrum disorder. But still, I am worried. Can someone calm me down (or tell me to keep pushing for additional evals, depending on your answer?) Is this really that rare?

PS- I should mention, she often 'corrects' herself after she says it. But does that mean she is showing signs of a processing difficulty?

[cloudbutterfly]

My son still calls himself "you" at 33 months old, and while he can tell you his full name if asked directly his name for himself is a combination of my pet name for him and "you."  (Although at this point he's more likely to speak in third person as whatever imaginary character he is pretending to be at the moment as to call himself by his name for himself).  We are pretty sure he calls himself that because that's what he's always heard from us.  He has occasionally/increasingly said I/me/mine, but still not very often.  He's extremely verbal, has a huge vocabulary and is otherwise doing well with language, so I haven't worried about it...just wondered how long he's going to stick with it!  I haven't been correcting him very often on it, so that could be why he hasn't given it up yet.  I figure he'll figure it out soon enough.

Anyway, I don't know anything for sure, and my son's case sounds a little different (she corrects herself, which suggests to me that she'd like to be saying it correctly, while I'm pretty sure my son could be using pronouns correctly but chooses not to at this point because it's part of how he thinks about himself) but most kids are just starting to really talk around that age, so personally I wouldn't be too worried.  But maybe someone else has more information.

Here, I searched for "pronoun reversal normal" I just found a thread about it from a few years ago that might ease your worries:  http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1061618/is-pronoun-reversal-exclusive-to-the-autism-spectrum

[andromedajulie]

I don't have any actual knowledge of this, in terms of linguistic development or whatever, but I can't imagine how that could be rare and problematic. My typically developing 25 mo old does that a lot. She says "are you hungry mommy" for 'I'm hungry' and "pick you up" meaning 'pick me up'. It's because she knows the phrase from hearing me say it: "do you want me to pick you up" - until they understand the pronoun concept in there, the idea is simply 'pick you up'. Maybe in a child a couple years older that would be an issue, but I can't believe so in a 2 year old! I don't think you need to worry!

[micromama]

I found some articles written by speech therapists that say "this is exceedingly rare in typically developing kids" which I thought was weird. Who knows.

[Daffodil]

I don't have the impression that it's rare at all.  My DD reversed "I" and "you" until she was about 2 1/2 and my niece did it a little longer than that.  Interestingly, they both were oldest children and have younger brothers who never reversed pronouns.  I think it's easier for the second child to figure it out.  The first kid just hears you referring to her as "you" and yourself as "I" so it's natural for her also to call herself "you" and to call you "I."  But the second kid hears you calling her sibling "you" and then hears the sibling responding with "I."

[micromama]

Ah that is a good point, Daffodil. DD is an only (but will have a sibling in about a month!) Will be interesting to see if her little sister does not have the same issue.

[sunnygir1]

Yeah, I can't imagine it's abnormal -- I have known so many kids who do it!

My ds is almost 3, a second child, and still does some of this.  He gets really adamant that his version of the sentence is correct if I try to correct it.  I don't worry about it.  He is totally normal and healthy, and language development happens naturally, not through me correcting his errors.