Feature-Based Classification of Pronoun Errors: Implications for Clinical Practice

Purpose A variety of pediatric clinical populations have difficulty with the correct use of pronouns. The available clinical literature labels these errors in inconsistent terms leading to great variation in how treatment objectives are worded. The purpose of this tutorial is to encourage a shift in pronoun assessment and treatment planning toward uniform, specific wording to assist clinicians in identifying patterns of error and selecting appropriate treatment targets. Method This tutorial presents a description of the 4 grammatical features of English personal pronouns: person, number, gender, and case. Within each feature description are examples of errors commonly observed in clinical practice. Also included are proposals for why each type of pronoun error occurs within different clinical populations. Recommendations for elicitation, classification of errors, goal writing, and treatment planning follow. Conclusions This tutorial provides clinicians with a feature-based approach to assessment and treatment planning for their clients' pronoun errors. The tutorial may facilitate clinicians' understanding of the grammatical features represented by pronouns and the features that are challenging to different pediatric clinical populations. With this information, pronoun attempts can be elicited, errors can be classified based on grammatical features, and goals can be written with regard to features to set up therapy that teaches clients relevant meaningful contrasts.