Three Year Old Referring to Self in Third Person?

[SilverSabre25]

Is this normal? She suddenly started referring to herself in the third person today. I know I haven't heard her do that before.

[youretooloud]

It's probably just an "Elmo" stage. I'd ignore it for a while and see how it goes.

Sometimes around this age, kids think something is cute, so they try it out.

About 12 years ago, I had a kid who did this at the age of SIX. He was the most annoying person on the entire earth. His own grandmother (who did daycare) wouldn't take him....I should have seen something coming when Grandma wouldn't have him over with her daycare kids. "David wants a turn" "David doesn't eat fruit." "David wants a present" "David doesn't like Pokemon"

[cheerfuldom]

I wouldnt worry about it unless you are seeing a number of other concerning behaviors

[Mom&Provider]

When I read this, I laughed! My son used to do this around that age when he was talking to his little sister or other family. He would start off by saying "XX (insert his own name here) is going to help you ok?" Or "It'll be ok, XX (insert his own name here) is here to help!"

Over time he said it less and less and now doesn't do it anymore - he's 5 now. I never realized that it should be something to become concerned about, so we just ignored it or eventually started to correct him on it and he caught on!

Maybe just mention it to the parent(s) so they are aware and do what you can to correct it/leave it alone on your watch!

[BumbleBee]

Is this normal? She suddenly started referring to herself in the third person today. I know I haven't heard her do that before.

I wouldn't be concerned about it. I had an almost 3 year old doing this all the time, only he would say his first, middle and last name every time. He eventually grew out of it.

[WImom]

I have a 5y old that always says "me" instead of "I". I will it ignore it if she's talking to other kids but if she's talking to me I'll usually remind her to say "I" when your talking about yourself. She is doing it alot less lately which is good.

[LittleCrawfishCC]

I agree with the ignoring, but in my daughters case, she is a aspie, her therapist said it was a sign of it, and that she doesn't understand how to express, so she says it in 3rd person. Not sure if that makes sense.

[e.j.]

I agree with the ignoring, but in my daughters case, she is a aspie, her therapist said it was a sign of it, and that she doesn't understand how to express, so she says it in 3rd person. Not sure if that makes sense.

I hesitated to say anything because I feel like I'm always saying, "My son has AS and...." but yeah, this has been our experience, too. Mixing up pronouns can be a characteristic. He also used to say things like, "You want a cookie?" when he meant, "I want a cookie."

Like someone else said, if there are other issues you are seeing in addition to this, I'd be concerned. If this is the only thing you've noticed, I'd assume it's normal and just see if it corrects itself over time.

[EntropyControlSpecialist]

I wouldn't be concerned about it. I had an almost 3 year old doing this all the time, only he would say his first, middle and last name every time. He eventually grew out of it.

:: At least the 3-year-old knew his whole name. I have an almost 5-year-old who argues that his last name is NOT his last name.

[Blackcat31]

Apparently it is a pretty normal language "slip up" within their development and will probably go away within a few months.

http://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/language-development/using-the-third-person.aspx