I would love to hear from someone with expertise in this area, but not really sure who that would be--Maybe a speech therapist or teacher or pediatrician?? My 3 year old little boy is very smart--Has a huge vocabulary, uses very long sentences and well thought out and detailed stories. He doesn't have any actual speech problems like one would usually use a speech therapist for. But one thing he still does is say things like "Me am hungry" and "What her doing?" I am obsessed with grammar, punctuation and all things language related :) so he certainly doesn't get this from me (and my husband and daughter do not talk this way either, of course.) Until now, I've never corrected him because I had read when he first began talking that there was no need to, he'd figure it out on his own in time. Now that he's 3 though and starting Pre-K soon, I'm thinking I probably should. And I'm also feeling like maybe I should have corrected him sooner because now it's probably just a matter of habit. Any thoughts on this topic? Thank you!
Thank you all for your wonderful answers! Like I said, we haven't corrected him thus far because I read that he would figure it out in time (and you're right, also because it is so darn cute!!) , I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't abnormal that he hadn't figured it out yet and also that I wasn't doing him any harm in not correcting him by/at this age. We'll just continue to enjoy his adorable quirkiness as long as possible! :) Thank you all!
I think the others are all agreeing...just start correcting him. I did that with my son (not in a mean way at all). You just need to start consistently showing him the correct way to speak - especially if he is starting PreK as he will pick up things you do NOT want him to say. My son started saying "ain't" and "fixin' to" when he started PreK and I consistently just gave him the replacement phrases.
Good luck!
L.
it is okay to correct your son. Don't say, hey that is wrong just repeat it in the correct form. When he says me am hungry, just say "I am hungry." I do this for my son and he then says oohhh, I am hungry. He appreciates the fact that there is a correct way to say something. Or I say ... "do you mean, I am hungry?" He usually gets that the way he said it was incorrect and corrects it himself. He is almost 3.
Here are some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_development_stages
http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/language_...
http://www.comeunity.com/disability/speech/guidelines.html
http://www.wholefamily.com/aboutyourkids/child/normal_1.h...
http://www.blankees.com/baby/speech/lan06.htm
i think this is typical of a 3yo. my sons 3.5yo and he says all the time "i have to wipe me nose". i agree with the other post. definitely not wrong to correct him. and maybe it's only a big deal bc like you said your obsessed with grammer. i am too. be thankful that's all he does. my son is too lazy to say his f's and uses d's instead and also has a hard time blending his letters like play he will say day. i have always corrected him and he CAN say it but won't. :)
Relax, mom! Pronouns are very tricky and take some time to really learn. Your sons speaking patterns seem very normal to me. My 3 year old is constantly confused when I refer to her as "you" because she turns it around and says "you" back to me even though she is referring to herself, or sometimes she thinks I'm talking about myself. Honestly, no pre-school will "expel" your son for not knowing proper grammar at age 3.
:-)
My oldest daughter (now 15) was an awesome speaker by the time she was 2 years old -- use of proper grammar, spoke very clear, used big words -- but my other two children were more like your son. My middle child is now 10 and she has a great grasp of proper grammar and is one of the smartest students in the 5th grade. And she had to overcome a temporary stutter when her language skills really started kicking in -- the speech therapist said she was fine and that her mouth couldn't keep up with her mind and she outgrew it.
I just want to add something I am seeing in my daughter, who is practicing her writing. She is almost 6 and sometimes just really enjoys writing the letters of a word in proper sequence, but not lining them up on the page in sequence. I was assured by my mother, who had a career doing IQ tests, that this letter play is just another way of experimenting with language and not being concerned at all with the rules of language. My daughter also sometimes purposely writes letters backwards and says, "I just like it that way sometimes."
Hi, I am a speech pathologist and thought I would give some quick advice. When your son says "Me am Hungry" you could just model the correct to say that " I am hungry." You don't have to tell him he is incorrect just try modeling and see if he responds. He is still young! Good luck and I hope that helps!
A.
No, no, no. Perfectly natural. He'll figure it out in time. No adults go around saying, "me am hungry." Plus, the examples you gave are pronouns, and he's using the personal pronoun (me/I) even though it's not exactly the correct one, and then possessive rather than the personal, but you're referring to a developmental issue. All children do this. Their brains are trying to figure out the whole grammar thing, so sometimes that universalize a rule, say, adding s's to all ending to make them plural (like "mices"), which means they've learned the rule, just not the exceptions or irregular forms. Here's a quote from an article online about children's language development:
"Making Corrections
Attempts to correct the form of a child's expression prove notoriously useless:
Child: want other one spoon, daddy
Father: you mean, you want the other spoon
Child: yes, I want the other one spoon, please daddy
Father: can you say 'the other spoon'?
Child: other ... one ... spoon
Father: say 'other'
Child: other
Father: 'spoon'
Child: spoon
Father: 'other spoon'
Child: other ... spoon. Now give me other one spoon?" (adapted from Braine 1971: 161)
And further down,
"Children seem to have taken the duchess' advice to heart: most recent research at every level of language study suggests that children are less concerned with "correctness" or with the form of their utterances, and much more concerned with communicating, with being understood, with making meaning" (de Villiers and de Villiers 1972; Halliday 1975 and 1978).
For the whole article, see http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/grammar/lgdev.htm
Perfectly natural, and usually funny as well!
I wouldn't worry too much about it...those personal pronouns are tricky! Think about it...that's a LOT of words that basically mean the same thing (with just slight variations). Me & I mean the same thing, we just use them differently depending on sentence structure, same with he/she/his/hers. Your son just has to learn when to use them correctly and that takes a pretty high level of critical thinking skills to determine which to use and when. Like the other mom's have said, I would just repeat what he said using the correct pronoun and he will get it eventually.
I am a speech pathologist. This is very natural at this age. You can help redirect him a little bit, but don't correct him at this age. You don't want your child to start to over think how he talks. If it really bothers you, just repeat what he says when appropriate but correct the sentence. Don't call too much attention to it, but give a good example. Usually at this age you really don't have to correct them with grammar. They usually pick most of it up on their own. Hope this helps.
I would tell you when he says something like "Me am hungry" just repeat what he said using the correct grammar "I am hungry" stressing the "I". He should start picking up what he needs to say when you model his statements correctly. At 3, he is trying to figure out language and will have many errors.
