Pronouns

Started:12/19/99

Ended: 8/23/00

Basic Outline of Procedure to Teach Pronouns that we used.

General Thoughts/ideas on Pronouns

Pronouns are something that many language disordered children have difficulty with.

Problems with pronouns may not be apparent at first because the child has learned some gestalt language (gestalt means “whole” and often, a child will learn a phrase “I want juice” to get the juice but they don’t necessarily learn what each word in that phrase means. This often happens to children who are nonverbal and then “suddenly” start speaking not in single words but full sentences. ) The gestalt language makes the parent think they know what I means but later, as the child ties to formulate original nonscripted sentences, they don’t make the switch between I and You.

The problem with pronouns is not a psychological one. It is not about having no sense of “self”. Many psychologists have tried to blame pronoun reversals on this. To be honest, this is pure Bettleheim Crap [AC1] and not deserving of more discussion.

If you are a parent or professional who has a child who has learned all his pronouns naturally, count yourself lucky! It will make life easier. We didn’t have it easy though. Lukas was able to actually identify gender pronouns very easily. He had trouble with pronouns that involves combinations of I/you and You/Your:

Can I ride on YOUR shoulders?

This simple sentences often came out:

Can you ride on my shoulders?

Can I ride on my shoulders?

This usually sparked the most complicated of all conversations:

Mom: no. Can you ride on my shoulders.

Lukas: (puzzled looked) Can you ride on my shoulders?

Mom: no. not you. I.

Lukas (throwing up his arms and gesturing to moms shoulders)

Mom: ugh.

Okay, probably not handled the best. It would have been better to give him the exact words to say: “ Lukas, say ‘Can I ride on your shoulders?’” rather than just correcting the pronoun.

I know of other parents who added the prompt of the proper name in with the pronoun and slowly over time faded the proper noun (a process we didn’t do):

Lukas: Can you ride on my shoulders?

Mom: No. Say “Can I (Lukas) ride on your (mommy’s) shoulders.

I think that a variety of methods can be used in pronoun correction[AC2] and one has to measure each option very carefully.

I do think that you have to do the following:

a.) be patient because as the child matures, he/she will most likely learn this

b.) hit it CONSTANTLY.

c.) Make the corrections/prompts clear

Other suggestions that I have read about in the past (taken from various posters over the months/years):

1. Reverse the pronoun when you address him. For example:

Therapist: do i want a cookie?

Child Answers: yes I do

Some parent do this when their child has pronoun reversal and it is a procedure used to correct the reversal. However, I would be very worried about doing this because it may be very hard to “unlearn” and the child may overgeneralise it and you may end up causing more problems than you had.

2. Ifthe child has a strong mand[AC3] , go through a quick series of “whose
body part is this?” questions, and make sure to prompt the right answer before he could be wrong. Example:

Therapist: “What is this (pointing to the therapists knee- assuming the child already knows body parts)?

(quick prompt from his perspective) your elbow. Then immediately ask: what is this (pointing to his feet)?

Child’s answer: (quick prompt from his perspective) my feet. Then you can extend this concept to objects. Always prompt from his perspective.

3.Teach and set 2 pronouns within one sitting

Attempt 1
Therapist: "Touch my nose" (hand-over-hand prompt child to touch
therapist's nose)

Attempt 2(widen very slightly gap before prompt, but still prompt)

Therapist: "Touch your ear" (prompt child to touch child's own
ear)

Attempt 3

At this point, you may want to quickly get back to the first "Touch my
nose" (as a slightly 'cold' trial without intention to prompt, or
quickly treat as another teaching trial when child hesitates too long
and prompt)

Therapist: "What's this? Your mouth." (Therapist points to her mouth,
immediately prompts child with echoic)

Child: "Your mouth." (echoic)

Therapist: "What's this?" (therapist points to her mouth)

Child: "your mouth" (not technically a tact yet, but perhaps a bit
more than an echoic)

Therapist: "What's this? My hand." (points to child's hand, prompts
child with echoic)

Child: "My hand."

Therapist: "What's this?" (points to child's hand)

Child: "My hand."

Once firm, intersperse body parts and pronouns at random,
prompting immediately at sign of hesitation, next trial a pronoun
that's already firm, backtrack to previously failed trial, so child
residually echoes the recent prompt but is seen to be successful

Tact: the tact (from the word contact) is the labelling of aspects of ones
environment and includes objects, prepositions, adjectives, pronouns etc.

This tends to be a word used in verbal behavior programs.
Again, the tact is an independent verbal operant and so the ability to say
"juice" because one wants some, does NOT mean that the child will then be able
to tact juice upon being asked "What is it?" As with all the verbal operants,
they need explicit training through DTT. However, you may find that your child is able to do this.

One begins mand training for information when the child has achieved the
following: spontaneously: manding for reinforcers; mands for actions, attention
and missing items; mands using yes and no; mands with carrier phrases.
Following manding for information, one would get the child to mand using
adjectives, prepositions, adverbs and pronouns.

Once the child can tact nouns, actions, noun-noun combinations, noun-verb
combinations, adjectives and noun-verb-adjective combinations, one would then
move on to teaching prepositions and pronouns.

For pronouns, it is effective to begin with receptive trials first, using the
pronouns "my/mine" and "your/yours." Using a stimulus that is known to the
child AND which clearly belongs to a particular person (eg: a body part) one
would ask the child to "Touch your nose" prompting the initial response to
avoid an error, then fading the prompt. As with any DTT one would use
differential reinforcement.

One would then ask the child to "Touch my nose" using the appropriate prompt
procedures. Interspersal of the two trials should then occur to ensure the
discrimination, and then one would generalise the two pronouns to other items.

When moving to the tacting of pronouns, IT IS VITAL THAT THE REINFORCEMENT OF
THE TACT USES THE SAME PRONOUN. So, if one has asked the child "Whose nose is
this?" (while pointing to the child's nose) and the child says "It's my nose"
one would NOT reinforce with "Yes, it's your nose"; one must reinforce by
saying "Yes, its my nose."

This pronoun reversal problem means that one would only introduce one pronoun
at a time ("my") and in the context of a strong EO. So, one could ask the child
"Whose video is it?" with a prompt to ensure the child says "my video" ensuring
that the verbal reinforcement of a correct response is "Yes, it's my video."
One could pretend to take the video away while asking whose video it is, and
then reinforcing the correct (pronoun) response by returning the video.

For "your" one could get a group of children to hand out a reinforcing item
(eg: a biscuit) saying "Here's your biscuit." Each child would have a chance to
do the same, eventually getting the "target" child to have a turn as well.

One would then return to the table setting and practise "my" again. Slowly one
would bring the two separate situations together.

Vince pointed out a serious flaw in our technique.
We would practice turn taking with our son to teach MY and YOUR:

Therapist: "Whose turn is it? Say, 'Your turn, Miss Amy'"
Son: "Your turn, Miss Amy."
Therapist: "That's right! It's my turn!"

Ooops! By throwing in that MY in the last sentence we inadvertently told my
son that YOUR was incorrect. We are super careful now to talk about pronouns
from HIS PERSPECTIVE. Sometimes that makes our conversations sound a little
silly to others, however, he has made remarkable improvement.

T: "Whose turn is it?"
S: "Your turn, Miss Amy."
T: "That's right! Your turn!" (then the therapist takes her turn)

It felt so strange when we first started it and we were constantly
correcting each other. It has become second nature now, and, as his use of
certain pronouns strengthens, we know when we can respond in a more natural
manner. I hope this helps

Basic Outline of Procedure to Teach Pronouns that we used.

*Teach the receptive first, then the expressive[AC4] .

Prerequisites: Once the child has mastered some body parts and two word phrases, you can start this.

Criteria for mastery: 90%, over two tutors, two days, and at least two consequetive sessions plus success in a generalized environment.

SD1: Receptive Pronoun MY Point to __________ nose (or touch, zap, hit, slap, press, drink, eat, colour, etc)

Basically the idea is to teach MY first and to use any object to do it. Do not start YOUR until MY is mastered.

SD2: YOUR: Point to ___________ nose.

DO NOT INTERMIX THESE UNTIL THEY ARE MASTERED INDEPENDENTLY. ADDITIONALLY,

DO NOT ask them to point to parts/objects that they may or may not know. You are working on pronouns not object labeling (tacting).

PRONOUNS in OUR PROGRAM:

Introduce one target at atime. This is a difficult concept to learn and it is even more confusing when the child is trying to learn more than one pronoun at a time.
Introduce the pronoun in the program, then correct him incidentally. If he is incorrect, prompt him for the correct response. Follow that up with having him independently use the correct pronoun.
I have listed the pronouns in the order in which a child generally learns the, I have also give some suggestions for how to teach each one. These are suggestions. If it isn’t working, change tactics!
MINE/Yours SD: whose is it? R= Its mine /Its yours.
My/Yours Sd1: Touch my/your (bodypart/clothing) R= touches correct persons body part/clothing sd2 expressive: whose _____ (body part/clothing)? R= its mine/yours
Me Sd: who wants _____________ r: ME! (pick something you know he wants!!)
He/She: Use pictures, dolls, then real people.

Sd1: Touch he/she r= touches correct picture/doll/person

Sd2: who has (object) R: he/she has (object)

Sd3: who is (action/ing)? R: he/she is (action)ing.

IT Sd: touch it. R- touches the object (not the person) Pictures are best for this step. Teach it against he/she. Teach Lukas to say “ I want/like/hate it”.
His/her(s) Sd: whose _________ ? R- his/hers or It is his/hers
You/I: Sd: Who has ________? R-You/I have _____________ (the ball, the car, whatever)
You/Me: Sd: who is it? (using pictures_) R= You/me (can can also look in a mirror together at same time!)
They/Them: Sd: Who is (action)ing? Or Who has ________ R= You/ME
Their(s) Sd: Whose _________? R= Theirs (do this against a picture of a single person) ie Whose ball? Theirs Whose car? His (showing a group of kids with a ball and another picture of a boy with a car )
We SD: Who has _______? With pictures “who is (actioning)? Sd: We are (use pictures of the child in a group OR have the child and another tutor jump up and down while mom sits) Combin with they and their once mastered.
US Sd: tell her who to give it to r: US! (have a tutor/person with a reinforcer. She can choose to give it to the child who is in a group or to a single tutor who is by his/herself.)
Our(s) Sd: after doing step O for US, ask “whose is it?” r- OURS!
Someone/somebody (do mysterious things like have someone knock on the therapy door.) Prompt him to say “somebody is knocking!” Or ask him “whose knocking?” R: Somebody!
No one/ Nobody target in a variety of ways including doing step Q and then have NOBODY there. Ask him “whose there?” r: nobody
Nothing/Anything

TARGET SHEET

Target Items	Introduced	Mastered
1. Mine	12/19/99	2/15/00
2. yours	12/19/99	2/15/00
3. Me	12/29/99	2/28/00
4. You	1/10/00	5/17/00
5. he sd1	2/28/00	3/02/00
6. she sd1	2/28/00	3/02/00
7. he sd2	3/04/00	3/9/00
8. she sd2	3/04/00	3/9/00
9. he sd3	3/12/00	3/23/00
10. she sd3	3/12/00	3/27/00
11. my	11/11/99	3/2/00* see note below A**
12. your	11/11/99	3/2/00* see note below A**
13. It receptive	4/6/00	4/11/00
14. it expressive	4/6/00	4/11/00
15. His expressive	4/13/00	5/3/00
16. Hers expressive	4/13/00	5/3/00
17.I	5/4/00	5/17/00
18. They	5/19/00	5/25/00
19. Them	5/25/00	6/21/00
20. Their	5/25/00	6/5/00
21 we	5/17/00	5/19/00
22. Us	6/21/00	7/3/00
23 Ours	7/03/00	7/26/00
24. someone/somebody	7/03/00	8/7/00See note belowB*
25. nothing	7/26/00	9/6/000See note belowB*
26. anything	7/26/00	9/14/000See note belowB*
27. no one	8/8/00	8/23/000See note belowB*
28. no body	8/8/00	8/23/000See note belowB*

NOTEA: We had “secretely” started a pronoun program without official sanction from our consultant because we could see how pronoun issues were affecting lukas’ peer play. We had started with this because it was the two pronouns causing the most problems. We ended transferring the data over to our “official” pronoun program that our consultant

Consented to.

NOTE B: Whats up with this? Why is it suddenly taking longer to target? Because School started at 32 hours a week and it ate into our 1:1 ABA time. Things started to take longer to master precisely because we had less time to do it.

DATA to comment on:

JG 12/21/99:” Mine 5/9 (#c/#T) Yours 5/9 kept telling me the object Random Rotation PVP (partial verbal prompts)

JG 12/28/99 Mine ¾ (#c/#T) Yours 3/5 (#c/#T) Random Rotation - switch to Block Rotation

EH: 1/23/00 Mine 2/3 yours ½ me: 1/1 he said the right pronoun first time but would instantly say the other pronoun. For instance, I would say “whose elbow” while pointing to his and he would say “mine Yours” Watch to make sure that you are not using patterns (ie mine,yours, mine, yours, mine, yours) in your SDs and target this in only ONE trial, intermix with another program, and then target. Did in random rotation

4/01/01: ALL TUTORS, lets work on I/your You/MY combos. He is missing the pronouns when they are combined (ie can I ride on your shoulders? Can you take my jacket?)

4/15/01: MM I nontargetted Mine/yours. He got a 2/3 He said it wrong the first time and self corrected but I was unsure if he looked at my facial expression for a prompt before self correcting. Nontarget this in the next session.

6/6/00 NOTE TO TUTORS: Be careful! Don’t mark him wrong if he supplies a correct answer but doesn’t give you the one you were hoping for. Ie: if you tell Lukas to tell mom who to give the item to and he responds “give it to Ashley and me” don’t mark him wrong for not saying “give it to us!” The fault isn’t Lukas’!! It is the examiners!

Links and Other Resources

http://www.superduperinc.com/wwwboard/messages/152.html

http://www.dimensionsspeech.com/articles-selecting.html

http://www.autism-resources.com/papers/microsocialogy_of_autism.txt