Pronouns are the little words that are used in place of a noun.
A very common error for many of the kids I work with is to replace “he” and “she” with “him” and “her” as in “Him is jumping” or “Her is happy”. Another error I see frequently is “him” for “his” as in “This is him coat”.
Typical Pronoun Development
This table from education.com gives the general order of pronoun acquisition, however, the actual order is variable with each child. As a group, subjective pronouns, such as he, she, and they, are acquired before objective pronouns, such as him, her, and them. These are followed by possessive pronouns, such as his, her, and their, and finally, around age 5, by reflexive pronouns, such as himself, herself, and themselves.
| Approximate Age in Months | Pronouns |
| 12-26 | I, it (subjective and objective |
| 27-30 | My, me, mine, you |
| 31-34 | Your, she, he, yours, we |
| 35-40 | They, us, hers, his, them, her |
| 41-46 | Its, our, him, myself, yourself, ours, their, theirs |
| 47+ | Herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves |
Sources: Adapted from Haas & Owens (1985); Huxley (1970); Morehead & Ingram (1973); Waterman & Schatz (1982); and Wells (1985).
Activities for he/she
*Play with little plastic characters or stuffed animals and talk about what they are doing – “he is jumping on the couch!” or “She is hiding under the blanket!”
*Look through books and talk about how people feel “he is….” or what they are doing.
*If you have DVR, pause the show your child’s watching to ask “What is she doing?” Have them respond with a complete sentence starting with “she is…”.
Activities for his/her
*Look in books and talk about the colors of the character’s clothes (“Her coat is red”, “His shoes are black”, etc…)
*Pause a favorite TV show or movie to talk about what the characters are wearing (see examples above).
*Using paper dolls or wooden magnet clothes dolls (Melissa and Doug company sells dolls and bears) talk about “his shirt” and “her shirt”.
*Look at pictures of relatives and friends. Work on the sentences “Her name is….” and “His name is ….”.
Songs
*Herman the Worm (target word: he)
*Mary Had a Little Lamb (target word: her)
*5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (target words: his/her)
*Old MacDonald Had a Farm (target words: his,he)
*The Bear Went Over the Mountain (target word: he)
*She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain (target word: she)
*This Old Man (target word: he)