Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Speech and Language Therapy Advice

UNDERSTANDING AND USE OF PRONOUNS

HE AND SHE

We use pronouns a lot when talking, but they can be very hard for some children to
learn. Pronouns are a handy short cut we can use rather than repeating a person’s
name all the time. However, to use them well a child needs to be able to interpret
whether someone is a boy or girl, understand that boys and girls are grammatically
different (rather than just thinking of them as people), they need to be able to
remember who they are talking about over a period of time and they need to be able
to hear the difference between two similar sounding words.

Begin by choosing activities which allow you to focus on the fact that we say “he”
when talking about a boy and “she” when talking about a girl, eg. drawing faces or
dressing people. Do not expect the child to use the pronouns correctly at this stage;
you are modelling correct sentences for them to hear.

Gradually pick slightly more difficult activities which require the child to listen carefully
and make the correct choice depending on whether you say “he” or “she”, eg. a
sorting activity or picking the correct characters when retelling a story or creating a
scene.

At this stage you might want to think about whether a child is having particular
difficulty with one of the words (lots of children use “he” for all pronouns and might
need help to appreciate that they need to use the word “she” sometimes) or whether
they are inconsistent in their use of both words. You can then target what the child
needs to give a particular focus for therapy.

Once you feel that the child has a good understanding of how we use the words “he”
and “she” then you can begin to share activities which require the child to construct
sentences with correct pronouns. Start with simple activities so that the child has
every chance of success and gradually create situations in which the child is required
to think more carefully about what they are saying, eg. narrating a play with lots of
different characters.

Some children find it helpful if you can use signing to give a non-verbal prompt as
you say the words “he” and “she” during the early stages.

Remember do not correct mistakes until the child is very confident in their use of he
and she. If appropriate, modelling the correct sentence back to them will be more
effective, eg. “Yes, she is wearing a purple skirt.”

If the child persists in confusing “he” and “she” please contact your Speech and
Language Therapist for support.

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ACTIVITIES:

1. Drawing faces. Take two blank pieces of paper and discuss that you are going to
draw a boy and a girl (this might be children in the child’s class, or made up people.
Draw long hair on the girl and short hair on the boy. You then gradually add the
different parts and talk about what you are doing. Eg. “He needs a nose” as you
draw a nose on the boy…then say “She needs a nose now”. The repetitive story line
is continued until the pictures are finished.

Once the pictures are finished you can use them to introduce the words “his” and
“her” as you colour in the different parts. “Let’s make his eyes blue. Let’s make her
eyes brown etc..” You can also reinforce the words by asking either a puppet or the
child to point to different parts of the pictures once they are finished. This will give
you a measure of whether the child is beginning to understand the difference.

2. Making Faces. Another way of practising this is to have sets of blank faces with
different hair styles and sets of facial features. Talk about the different faces that you
are making as you add the pieces, e.g. “He’s got a big nose. She wants/needs little
ears” etc.. There are several commercial sets available for this, or you can make your
own and use blue tack to keep the pieces in place. To add humour you could allow
monster type facial features – red eyes, pointed teeth, etc.

This activity can be played at 3 different levels:

 Modelling “he” and “she”/“his” and “her”.

 Checking the child’s understanding by asking them to find the pieces
 Helping the child to practise saying the right words by asking them to tell you
what to do.

3. Dressing People. Have a boy and a girl in their underpants (you could use dolls
or pictures) and a collection of different clothes. Talk about what they are going to
wear as you dress them. To make the task harder have target pictures and try to see
if the child can tell you what to put on the characters. You can extend the game by
giving each character a bag to pack and seeing if they can find the right clothes for
their holiday.

4. Colouring. Give the child a picture of a little boy and a little girl – outlines only
ready for colouring. They must be dressed in similar clothes. Describe to the child
what each should be wearing and get him to colour them in accordingly. Eg. “He’s
got red trousers. She’s wants/needs a blue jumper” etc.

Choose different pictures to extend the idea, eg. 2 bedrooms, plates of food etc.

5. Making scenes. A little boy doll and a little girl doll are each placed against a
drawing, eg. a toy cupboard, a farm, a house with a garden in front of it. Place
various items in the garden and talk about what you are doing or get the child to
describe it. “He’s got a big tree. He’s got a chair.”

6. Puzzles. Doing character puzzles together can be a good way to model the use
of “he/she” and “his/her” as you try to work out where the different pieces go; eg. “I
have a bit of Milo, where is he? Oh look! He is sitting on a beanbag.”

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7. Sorting verb cards. This can be a good way of highlighting the difference between
“he” and “she”. Collect sets of pictures with boys and girls carrying out the same
activity. Muddle them up and then work through the pile to sort them out. You could
do this in several ways – sorting into hoops or piles; one person collects all the boys
and the other all the girls; stick pictures cut from toy catalogues onto 2 different
pieces of paper which have the headings “He is…” and “She is….”

8. Card games. There are lots of card games that you can play with sets of verb
pictures (please see separate handout). These allow you to model and practise
using “he” and “she” in a calm, controlled way.

9. Quiz games. (These tend to be more difficult, make sure that the child has the
language skills to cope with them) Collect pictures of individuals dressed for their
different jobs or doing hobbies, eg nurse, doctor, policeman, etc. Get the child to
describe what the person does so that you can guess the profession.
e.g. “He catches burglars. He helps people who are lost.” etc.

10. Stories. Read stories with boys, girls or both in them, stressing the pronouns
and then talk about what happened. If you use stories with animals in them, then you
could have a chat about why the author uses “he” or “she” for the different
characters.

11. Plays/acting out. Make up plays together using miniatures. Can the child be the
narrator and talk about what is happening. Alternatively you could give the child a
microphone and pretend that they are a reporter who needs to go on the tv and tell
people what is happening, eg. at Sports Day “Here comes Michael, he is a very good
jumper. Will he be able to jump over the hurdles? Yes! He jumped really well there.
He is going to win first prize.” You might be able to make use of current events and
write a script together.

12. Reading books. Can you make up sentences for the pictures in the child’s
reading book focusing on using pronouns.

13. Ask questions and give commands that emphasise pronouns during everyday
routines. “Now I need to find Paul, where is he? Oh look, he is playing in the sand.”
This is Emma’s book; can you put it in her drawer?”

14. Daily Diary. Key children could keep a diary of what happens at home or school,
using pictures and a few words written by an adult. A special time can be set aside
to hear different children talking about their diary. The adult can reiterate the child’s
news using pronoun forms, and then ask questions about it, again using pronouns,
e.g. “What did Kelly do at the weekend? She went to the….. [park]. Where else did
she go?”

15. Circle Time. You might be able to use Circle Time to talk about key people or
things in the children’s lives. Ask them to bring in photos or objects to support the
discussion. Afterwards, the lead adult can talk about the different contributions, e.g.
“This is Peter’s photo. He brought a photo of his puppy. Peter’s puppy is a girl. She
is called Bouncy. She likes playing ball.

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