Speech and Language - when does 'me did it' become 'I did it'

[incywincyspideragain]

ds3 is 2.5 yrs, just had bi-lateral grommits, some speech and language delay, he has always talked loads and the grommits mean he is getting clearer (more people can understand him and no meltdowns ) but one of the most noticable things is his sentence construction - he sounds like jar jar binks most of the time cute for now but I was wondering when/if I should be concerned...

Not an expert, hopefully someone better informed will be along in a minute but DD is 2.8 and still says 'my do it' and 'him go outside' etc..

It hadn't occured to me to worry about it as she hasn't had any speech delays and has a good vocab (read that as never shuts up) so I would just go with it as it sounds like your DS has come on leaps and bounds recently...

I also don't want DD to grow up any quicker so it's a sweet little quirk at the moment..

sentence structure kicks in on average 3-3.5 but it does depend alot on how you speak to them

'shall mummy do it?'

'ooo what should mummy make for dinner'

'dd do it'

'what colour should mummy have?'

and we wonder why they can't construct a sentence???

he sounds like he is doing brilliantly with the grommets so just keep talking, if his words are unclear then reapeat them back without correcting (yes that is a blue car etc etc)

I don't think it's strictly that much of a problem for a parent to say "mummy" instead of "I".... They will hear "I" often enough in everyday conversations around them, and usually people tend to direct this type of sentence construction only when they feel that the child is likely to confuse the meaning of "I", it fades out as the child naturally develops. It also only tends to be used in certain child-directed contexts, it's much more unlikely for it to occur around older chidlren or adults or in extended dialogue/instructions/comments e.g. Mummy thinks she will pop upstairs and have a bath in a minute, do you want to come with Mummy?" and very few people other than a direct caregiver will use it unless there is some particular reason to do it at that point in time e.g. "I'll do it" is confused by a toddler shouting, e.g. "No I do it! Me do it!". Also, remember the majority of children use my/me for a prolonged period of time, having never heard anyone around them say "My do it" or "Me need that!".

I wouldn't be concerned now. 3-3.5 sounds about right and model, model, model.

not saying it's a problem, it's a normal part of language development, point being we tend not to speak in structured sentences to toddlers so we should expect them to talk in a fully structured way

I love listening to the little ones talking like this -always makes me giggle :)

My DS1's pronouns were all over the place at this age. He often confused I and you (reversed), so "me" instead of "I" seemed like progress! He has no other issues and was actually quite a quick talker. Round about his 3rd birthday, just at the point where I was starting to worry (and after months of me modelling the correct way to say things but seemingly being ignored), he "got it". Over the course of about a week, he figured out all of his pronouns and all of a sudden his speech sounded really grown up. I felt that he was late to get this in comparison to a lot of his friends, but at 3.5 his speech is now completely normal.

thanks, yes workshy his speech has come on lots since he had grommits, its amazing the difference they have made, not only to his language but behaviour too, he is much more confident at nursery - his key worker commented that she kinds of misses him now he is off playing independantly.
Thanks for all the advice - I'll let him be and see how he's doing when he's 3