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Personal pronouns and the autistic child

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Abstract

The long-recognized difficulties of the speaking autistic child with the use and nonuse of personal pronouns [“reversals” and “avoidance”] have been generally attributed either to the nondifferentiation of the self or to the frequently coexisting symptom of echolalia. These explanations are reconsidered in this eclectic analysis from the perspective of current theory and research in development of self and of language. Emphasis is on studies of normal development of personal pronouns and the roles played in that process by listening, echoic memory, mitigated echolalia [recoding], and person deixis. It is concluded that multiple developmental obstacles of a social, cognitive, and grammatical nature underlie the more obvious symptoms and militate against the child's resolution of labels and their referents. Treatment alternatives that deemphasize the primacy of Iare offered.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Crippled Children's Division, University of Oregon Health Sciences Center, P.O. Box 574, 97207, Portland, Oregon

    Warren H. Fay

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  1. Warren H. Fay
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Fay, W.H. Personal pronouns and the autistic child. J Autism Dev Disord 9, 247–260 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531739

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