# Language acquisition: when did your toddler "get" pronouns?



## hopefulfaith (Mar 28, 2005)

My ds Adam is 2 years, 1 month old. He doesn't really get pronouns - I forget what the different types are grammatically called, but here's a typical exchange:

Me: "Do you want your monkey?"
A: "You do want your monkey." (meaning, "I do want my monkey.")

or

Me: "Did you have a nice nap?"
A: "You had a nice nap."

or, my favorite:
Me: "Are you wet or poopy?"
A: "You are poopy!"

When did your toddler understand and use pronouns appropriately?
(I'm not worried in the least; I have no illusions about him going to kindergarten without personal pronouns....but I _am_ curious!)

Thanks!


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## staceychev (Mar 5, 2005)

Lu is very verbal. I'd say it's been at least 6 months. She's 27 months now. Typical usage is "No, you do it" or "No, I do it I-self."


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## kwilki8 (May 24, 2005)

My dd is 30 months and, with the exception of "my" (although everything seems to be hers!














she doesn't use many pronouns correctly. She repeats "you" when I say it, and she doesn't use "I"; she always refers to herself in the third person. She didn't start talking until about 25 months, though.


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## Love_My_Bubba (Jul 4, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *kwilki8* 
My dd is 30 months and, with the exception of "my" (although everything seems to be hers!














she doesn't use many pronouns correctly. She repeats "you" when I say it, and she doesn't use "I"; she always refers to herself in the third person. She didn't start talking until about 25 months, though.

We've got a "my" monster too, we're actually working on sharing and the use of "my" right now. I think he's been using this word for about a month now and he's 19 mo.


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## arniflora (Oct 23, 2005)

Ds is 34 months. He uses I, me, my, mine, you, yours, but about 25% of the time still refers to himself in the 3rd person. He often confuses "he" and "she" (and his and her) saying of a girl "He has red hair" etc.,

When I ask him "do you want more banana" and he answers "you want more" I correct him and say "you say, 'I want more'"

This stuff is SO confusing to learn! He didn't actually start saying "I" till about 4 months ago.


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## Shanana (May 11, 2005)

DD is 26 months old and still has I / you / me / etc. confused. Just like your ds, she says what _I_ say, so refers to herself as "you", etc. Most of the time, if she says something like "you want the cheese" I'll just say "_I_ want the cheese" and then she'll repeat that. But she still gets it mixed up a lot of the time







.


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## dimibella (Feb 5, 2007)

DD is 23mo and pretty much only refers to herself in the 3rd person or responds with a simple yes or no.

ETA: of course as soon as I post this, DD comes in and tells me, " I want dada", soooo...


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## Ruthla (Jun 2, 2004)

DS got pronouns all mixed up until age 3 or so, and got the he/she stuff mixed up even longer. He just didn't "get" that there was any difference in meaning between the words "he" and "she" (or "his" and "her") or that other children would be insulted if he mixed them up.

I was CONSTANTLY explaining this to an 8/9yo friend who didn't have any younger siblings! "Yes, DS knows you're a boy, he just gets his words mixed up."


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## hottmama (Dec 27, 2004)

My 21 mo. old has had I, me, and you for a few months, but I don't think he uses she or he yet. He says things like "You're mean to Jules, mommy!" "Nurse me, please" and "I'm Spiderman!"








I'd say around 18 mos. for this guy, but close to 2 for my first, who was a late talker.


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## alicia622 (May 8, 2005)

Gage (also 25 months) has just started saying "I do it" instead of "you do it" which 9 times out of 10 meant he wanted to do it. He has also started using he and she but usually uses she for boys and he for girls


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## wannabe (Jul 4, 2005)

Around two, now she's onto "mys" (as in, if yours is correct, then it must be mys rather than mine)









I found this site really interesting with regard to grammatical development.
http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/BrownsStages.htm


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## redpajama (Jan 22, 2007)

My son is 2.5, and I feel like he's been using pronouns correctly--even his/him and her/she, for the most part--since he began talking in sentences. But he only began speaking in sentences...maybe 3-5 months ago? It was after his second birthday, for sure.
Now he leaves *other* words out of sentences, as in, "She wants you nurse her."

Oh, he did the "mys" thing for a while, too--except he pronounced it more like "mice."

"Hey, that's *mice*!"


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## eepster (Sep 20, 2006)

DS seems to have gotten pronouns right off the bat. His first sentence at around 15 mo was "I done mama" (I was trying to get him to eat a little more b/c the pediatrician was giving me a hard time about how little solids he ate and how tiny he was.)


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## schreiberwriter (Aug 3, 2005)

My DS is the same age. I don't think he even uses pronouns.

Maybe you have a genius.


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## Daffodil (Aug 30, 2003)

My DD had you and I/me reversed until she was about 2 1/2. Her cousin didn't start using them correctly until she was closer to 3, but her little brother was using "I" to refer to himself by the time he was 2. My DS is 22 months, and he still doesn't use pronouns very often, but when he does use a pronoun for himself, it's "you."


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

It always amazing me when I see kids who seem to just get this right out of the gate so to speak--like my 18 month old nephew. Whew.
But I think this is inherently confusing. For kids and in teaching it for a kiddo who seems to reverse as you are modeling it wrong when you try to teach it.
Anyway, my typically developing kiddo got it consistent finally a bit after age three. He still reverses very, very occasionally...but he's got a twin on the autism spectrum who consistently reverses so I think that makes it confusing around here. I also used their names rather than pronouns for a terribly long time because they were always together so "you" didn't seem to fit...I have no clue why I kept calling myself mommy














: so I think that delayed things around here.
My boys were correctly using him/her he/she and such long before I heard any pronouns other than mine.


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## BookGoddess (Nov 6, 2005)

My daughter is 26 months now and she uses only one pronoun, "I". She's a late talker.

I don't think it's uncommon at this age to mixup pronouns. I know a 3 year old boy who is very verbal but he hasn't mastered pronouns well. Once he asked me "How old is it?" referring to my daughter.


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## AllisonR (May 5, 2006)

I think they get "mine" before anything else. I guess that's important. My nearly 3 y son refers to himself by name, or me by name "mor" more often than saying you or me or I.... as in "Kristoffer put shoes on" or "Mor do it" or "Mor help you" meaning "mor help me." He has ear drains and two languages though, so that throws his language off a bit.


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## hopefulfaith (Mar 28, 2005)

This is really fascinating to me; I think it really points out how different children develop at different rates...such a cliche, but you don't realize how true it is until you begin asking questions like this.









My ds does not actually use the word "mine" - however, we live very rurally without other children his age to play with. We do attend a playgroup once a week for two hours in the next town over (1 hour away), but there's just really a lot of parallel play going on there --- and since I do not use it in regard to the toys







, I don't believe he's had it modeled much. Perhaps that is why.

Wannabe, I found that site really fascinating - thanks so much for the link.

BookGoddess, I enjoyed 'how old is it?'.









Everyone, thank you so much for answering - I am really interested in this.


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## stellimamo (Jan 9, 2006)

DD is about 27 months and has been using pronouns (yours, mine, he, she, her, him, you, me, etc.) correctly about 90% of the times since 22-23 months. She still uses "mys" though and its so cute..


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## Nature (Mar 12, 2005)

DD3 is 21 months and she says "I" and "mine." Thats about it though. So a sentence for her might be, "I pretty." The only time she said me is when she wants attention or to get up on my lap, "me! me! me! me!"

More often though she uses one word. "More" "Juice" "Some" "Eat" and just repeats the word until she gets what she needs. Her speech isn't really clear though. Dh and I are the only ones that can understand her.


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## Perdita_in_Ontario (Feb 7, 2007)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *sbgrace* 
...I have no clue why I kept calling myself mommy














: so I think that delayed things around here.

DD started using "I" and "my" shortly after I started talking in the first person rather then referring to myself as "Mummy"







. I'd say that was about 21 months. She has pretty much all of them - the gender-specific ones are still a bit hit or miss at 26 months. For quite a while she said "my" instead of "I" ("My want that ball") but she's got it now.


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## noah's mom (Jan 3, 2006)

DS is 28 mos and he's been pretty consistent with most pronouns for at least the past few months (I forget exactly when I first noticed it, but at that point I realized I no longer had to refer to myself in the third person - e.g. "Mommy is going upstairs now"







). The only exceptions are the occasional "mys" and an interchangeable he/she. He's pretty articulate in general and has been speaking in sentences since before he turned 2.

It is fascinating to read this thread and see what a wide range of "normal" there truly is!


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## lucky_mia (Mar 13, 2007)

DD is 21 months and she seems to get pronouns. For at least a couple of month she says sentences like:

"I want it." or more often "I no want it."
"Where is daddy, where is he?"
"Mommy you funny."

I don't refer to myself in the third person much so maybe that helps?? "Mine" has got to be the most common word around my house. It drives me crazy.







:

DS also 21 months doesn't seem to use pronouns much or maybe not at all.


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## allgirls (Apr 16, 2004)

Martina will be two in a few weeks(the 26th) and she uses pronouns quite well already.

The only one she doesn't use is "me" She will say things like "look at Martina" instead of "look at me" but she will use "I" and say "I want to do xyz" etc.

It's really crazy and interesting how many variations of normal language development there are. I have 4 girls who were all very verbal at a young age and they all developed it differently.

One thing they all have in common though, talking toddlers are very very cute!


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## beana's mommy (Feb 16, 2006)

My dd uses them, but I don't think she truly understands them all. She'll repeat "you" a lot, but, does use it correctly sometimes. She used to always say "talk him" when I was on the phone because most of the time it's daddy so I would ask if she wanted to "talk to him". But, she's started using her, too, for females. She uses I and me.

Mostly I think it's just memorizing phrases and which people we say him/her for. I don't think she truly has the boy/girl thing down... but we don't really talk about it specifically.

When my dd was born my niece was 2yr 9months and would say "her get out Aunt Melissa's belly" "her cute" and "her eating your booby". It was so cute! I know she ended up being a little late in learning her/she, but, probably because we all enjoyed it too much! LOL

I used to sing a song to my dd "Riding around on the parachute, look at she, aren't her cute" we're warped...


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## JamesMama (Jun 1, 2005)

James is 32 months old and he has the I vs you down.

His confusion comes when wants to tell you he has/did something. Then it becomes "Look what my got." or "Look what my did" instead of I. If he's saying he's going to grandma's house he'll say "I'm going to grandma's house!"

He also has issues with he vs she. He wanted to know where I was so he asked DH "Where is him?" and stuff like that.

We're working on the he vs she, we just correct him. We say "That person/Mama/Grandma/Friend/ is a GIRL so we say SHE not he" and he'll correct himself.

Oh, his other thing that he does every time is "Daddy/Mama, I carry you" meaning he wants carried, but thats just too dang cute I don't want it to stop.


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## cheeseRjedi (Jun 5, 2005)

DD is just about 27 months and has just gotten the I-me-you thing down in the last month or so.


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## loraxc (Aug 14, 2003)

DD was very verbally advanced in virtually every other area but did not get her pronouns correct till right around the time she turned 3. We even tried to work with her on it, to no avail. She still occasionally confuses "they" and "them."


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## katsam (Mar 3, 2005)

My 3.5 year old is just starting to use them correctly.


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## Ell-Bell (Nov 16, 2002)

Funny, DS is 18 mo and we've recently started having this dialogue...

Me: "Max, want to go downstairs?"
Max: "YOU!"
Me: "YOU want to go downstairs?"
he nods, points to himself and says, "You!"


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## hakeber (Aug 3, 2005)

Benjamin gets them right sometimes...He's 2 and half. He knows his subject pronouns: I, you and we (the third person still alludes him, but he hasn't much practice in gossip, yet







) He still gets confused now and then, but then he reverts to talking about himself and others in the 3rd person...Benjin's milk, daddy and Benjin go bye-bye, see you later mommy. but that's normal.

He's got the possessive adjectives down pat. My, your, his...especially MY

Mine, your his, hers...this has proven a struggle...he'll often take objects away and say Not Mine, YOURS! When I think he means. Not yours, MINE! But that may be a syntax thing.


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## becoming (Apr 11, 2003)

She's been using pronouns correctly since about 18 months, but she was a very early talker and has a huge vocabulary. The only one she still gets wrong is "my/I" -- she's constantly saying things like, "My do it!" and "Yes, my did."


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## Mama Poot (Jun 12, 2006)

Paddy is 26 months, I don't think I've heard a pronoun out of him yet. He's a late talker, but he is making a lot of progress with nouns right now. Instead of using pronouns to describe people, he uses what he thinks they are- a man is "Dada", a woman is "Mama" and a kid is "baby"


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