An experimental comparison of the understanding and use of speaker‐addressee personal pronouns in autistic children

Abstract

Eleven autistic children were compared to normally developing children and mentally handicapped children, matched by receptive vocabulary age, on their understanding and use of the personal pronouns 'you' and 'me'. There were no significant differences between the groups in their comprehension of these terms, where the terms could be understood simply as referential labels. There was, however, a marked difference in the production of 'me' and 'you'. Only two autistic children showed the same pattern of responses that was shown by all but 4 of the 22 control children. The autistic children showed almost no 'pronoun reversal'. Instead, they used incorrect case pronouns or proper names for self or other reference. The results are interpreted in the light of significant difficulties in the acquisition of person deixis in autistic children.