The third person

[rainbabies]

[Vanquisher]

I think most kids do this. Pronouns are one of the last parts of speech that kids understand and use correctly. When my son did this, and would say, "hold you?" I might once in a while gently correct it, but more often than not, I would let it go. After all, he is just getting comfortable with this new language. Pronouns are tough. He'll understand them eventually, and I wouldn't worry about it at all.

[alison]

I second Heidi.
I've done some research in child language acquisition (because it is said to parallel second language acquisition) and studies have shown that as kids we undergo "U-shaped learning." Meaning: kids start off being able to use the correct pronouns, then seemingly lose this skill, but in the end regain it and perfect it. Most studies have been done with the past tense. Like little kids said "I went to XYZ" and then inexplicably, when they're older say "I goed to XYZ." Of course later they go back to "I went..."

I wouldn't correct (let it go) even IF you feel pangs of neglecting your child by not correcting! If anything, it'll either confuse him ("I??? No, mommy YOU!" or in the worst case he'll resent your correcting him and will continue using the 3rd person even when he "comes to" and notices it's not the correct form.

[SueC]

I agree, I generaly don't correct, but I might say, "oh, do you want to be held, XXXX"? I think they eventually work out the pronouns over time without any trouble.

Agreed w/all. As Sue said, just repeat back what they meant to say w/o correcting them per se.

My son used to think his name was YOU. If I'd say "Who do I love?" He'd say "Yoooooouuuu!"

[mommax3]

I agree with the above. Another thing that my older two boys did around the same age was to say "when I am the mommy...." or "when I am a little girl...." like they thought they would get alternate lives someday. It was cute, but went away on its own.

Sally