When do children begin to understand third person pronouns and do older siblings influence this comprehension?

Watsons, Catherine (2010) When do children begin to understand third person pronouns and do older siblings influence this comprehension? University of Lincoln.

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Abstract

Previous literature has indicated that children with older siblings acquire pronouns more easily than first-born children. However, it has previously been assumed that children only begin to comprehend pronouns around the age of 3 to 5 years but this is due to the cognitive effort required by participants in the tasks used. This current study attempts to offer an age-appropriate methodology, combining preferential looking and eye-tracking, to test 2 and 3-year-olds’ comprehension of the third person pronouns him and her. Looking behaviour towards the target and distracter stimuli indicated that both 2 and 3-year-olds were unable to comprehend him and her and birth position in the family had no effect on comprehension. It is suggested regardless of methodology, 2 and young 3-year-olds are not able to comprehend the third person pronouns him and her, supporting the notion comprehension is preceded by production. The combined methodology used here needs further validation, by testing older children, in order to help confirm its usefulness for measuring pronoun comprehension. Further research is needed to investigate the effect of having an older sibling on pronoun comprehension, as literature focuses predominantly on production. This will assist in the identification of language impairment and social difficulties.