Pronoun help anyone?

[furrowed]

Does anyone have any tips/links/advice/sorcery that might help DS with getting his pronouns, or is this just something that he will do "when he's ready"? Like !@$*$&%$##@)&^$@)# potty training?

thanks, as always everyone!

[sbgrace]

How old is your son? Like everything else some of this is when the kiddo is ready. Our RDI therapist told us that Andrew's lack of self vs. other awareness was part of the issue and as he naturally gained more awareness there his pronouns would begin to get sorted. We did a lot of turn taking activities in that self/other awareness.

I did call attention to pronouns in my language. "I (patting myself) love you (patting him)." We used patting a lot (he's a sensory seeker rather than avoider so that isn't aversive to him at all) and I did give him opportunity to correct after I knew he sort of understood and was just mixing more out of habit. The patting cued him then. For a while I noticed he would self correct and use patting all on his own when doing it. Then he was mostly always correct but would still hesitate a bit and pat himself when he said I especially (he did a lot of you for I stuff). He doesn't pat anymore but I do think that motion helped him somehow to break the habitual reversing after he had the basic idea. But the basic idea was time and maybe the discoveries he was making in RDI.

Pronouns are such a hard thing to directly teach/correct because when you do it's reversing.

[bdavis337]

kids with sensory problems often have pronoun useage difficultes. it's tied in with their sense of space and how to they are able to separate themselves from the world around them. it's also a developmental step, and if your child has developmental delays, they simply may not be at that point yet.

I use a LOT of language modeling, and I inject pronouns at every possible time, even when a proper noun would be ok. It helps to always refer to yourself as "I" instead of in the 3rd person - no more saying "let Mummy get that for you", but rather "I will help you with that". and the pointing/patting thing that Rachelle mentioned is a big help as well, putting the physical aspect into the modeling.

Mark can fairly consistently use pronouns like you, he and it, but he has trouble with I, my, me, etc. His language therapist does a lot of "this is Mark's banana. this is YOUR banana. Do YOU want ME to peel YOUR banana for YOU?" It's monotonous, but I can see it workingl.

[furrowed]

Thanks, great recommendations! Out of curiosity, how long did it take to get down, once earnest instruction began?

I cut out all 3rd person referencing, and also tried to emphasize pronouns wherever possible. I like the patting idea - I can see how that would help, and make this very complicated grammatical structure less abstract.

DS has from the beginning done well with using "I" and seldom mixed it with "you" (when he was the subject of the action) and has only occasionally mixed mine/your, but when someone else is the object, he has mixed those up.

I have read that some NT kids do this, but he is our only one and we have nothing to compare to.

Sbgrace, I too have wondered if this is related to what you called "self vs. others awareness". I felt this is an area of concern for me, too. There have been times when I wonder if he realizes he is a distinct individual (however much a toddler can think that anyway!)

Very confusing, thanks for the suggestions

[bdavis337]

Months and months of it, to be honest. I've been modeling since last summer, and once we got assigned a language therapist she gave me evern more suggestions. Patience and time.