Practicing pronouns

When children mix up their words, it’s often cute to those who know them well, but confusing to those who don’t know what they mean. Language mix-ups are part of learning, but some kids get  ‘stuck’ with a mix-up.

Common pronoun confusions to look out for include:

•       “me don’t want to” instead of “I don’t want to”
•       “me going” instead of “I’m going”
•       “me want that” instead of “I want that”
•       “he’s playing a game” instead of “she’s playing a game”
•       “him hurt himself” instead of “he hurt himself”

To help your child get their pronouns right, we recommend:

•       Modelling the correct use of pronouns in spoken sentences when your child produces an error (e.g. turn “me want to do it” into “I want to do it”).
•    Praising your child when they use the correct pronoun (e.g. Wow, I like how you fixed up ‘she’ without me telling you).
•    Being specific when praising your child for fixing an error up by themselves. This will show the child the exact part you are praising him for so he knows next time.
•       Providing a good model for your child by using pronouns during conversation and games.
•       Using pronouns when describing pictures in storybooks or making up stories (e.g. “look, she is jumping”).

Don’t let a small developmental hurdle get in the way of your child developing appropriate social and communication skills. To get more information on how to help with child call to make an appointment with a Kid Sense Speech Pathologist on 1800 KIDSENSE (1800 543 736).