Children on the autism spectrum can find the long-term goal of grammar, such as using correct prepositions and using correct pronouns, difficult to master. Deficits in the domains of language and communication can lead to your child struggling to correctly apply grammar rules in conversation or when writing materials, such as school work. For example, you may notice that your child does not use action words in the correct tense. Or you may notice your child has some deficits in applying different types of pronouns within sentences or when referring to others. Helping your child learn some basic grammar rules can improve their ability to communicate effectively in general, as well as their ability to have conversations with their friends, family, and peers. 

The following strategies may help your child make progress towards mastering the short-term goal of using correct prepositions:

• Practice item placement. Use one of your child’s preferred items. Practice prepositions by providing instructions on where your child should place the item. You could say “Put the [name of item] on the floor,” or “Put the [name of item] under the chair.” Offer positive reinforcement in the form of praise or a reward, such as a desired food item or toy, for correct actions. Phase out the positive reinforcement when the skill has been sufficiently acquired. If the reinforcer for the behavior is a tangible item, such as a small snack or a token for a token board, ensure that it is provided with a great deal of verbal praise. Ideally, you want your child’s positive behaviors to be supported solely by social reinforcement.
• Identifying placement. Using the same concept as noted above, place your child’s preferred item in various positions around a table, chair, box, or other material. Start by providing an example, such as placing the item inside a box and telling your child, “The [item] is in the box.”  Now ask your child, “Where is the [item]?” and encourage them to repeat, “In the box.” Repeat, using different locations that can be identified by prepositions. After your child has mastered repeating the location of the item, repeat the activity but encourage your child to respond on their own and offer praise for correct responses. For incorrect responses, tell your child where the item is and then prompt your child to repeat. Ask again, without providing the answer. For correct responses, give your child positive reinforcement and praise to encourage repetition of the correct response. Phase out the positive reinforcement when the skill has been sufficiently acquired. If the reinforcer for the behavior is a tangible item, such as a small snack or a token for a token board, ensure that it is provided with a great deal of verbal praise. Ideally, you want your child’s positive behaviors to be supported solely by social reinforcement. Examples are:
  

1. Put a favorite book on your child’s bed. Ask: “Where is the book?” 

2. Put a favorite snack in a bag while your child is watching. Ask “Where is the [snack]?”

• Additional Resources:

• For the parents:

Prepositions For Kids: A Helpful Guide, Plus Fun Activities - Begin Learning

Five fun activities to teach prepositions | British Council

• For the child:

Prepositions for Kids - YouTube

Prepositions of place for children - The concept of space, for kids - Where things are - YouTube

The Prepositions Song | English Songs | Scratch Garden - YouTube

The following strategies may help your child make progress towards mastering the short-term goal of using correct pronouns:

• Fix pronoun reversals. Get photographs or images from magazines, books, or another source that are at the appropriate level for your child. Make sure the images have an individual and a clear action (for example, a girl eating an apple). Point to the individual in the image and verbally identify the individual in the image by apparent sex. For example, you could say “She is a girl.” Have your child repeat. Incorporate the matched pronoun. Ask your child, “Who is eating the apple?” and have the child identify the noun (i.e., girl) or pronoun (i.e., she). Repeat with different images and provide your child with positive reinforcement through the use of verbal praise and/or rewards. Phase out the positive reinforcement when the skill has been sufficiently acquired. If the reinforcer for the behavior is a tangible item, such as a small snack or a token for a token board, ensure that it is provided with a great deal of verbal praise. Ideally, you want your child’s positive behaviors to be supported solely by social reinforcement.
• Encourage your child to ask people what their identified pronouns are. One way to help your child attribute pronouns to individuals is to encourage them to ask someone what their pronouns are if they do not know them. For example, when you are introducing them to a family member they have never met, you can encourage them to ask, or model the question for yourself by saying something like, “Hi, Janet, it’s been a while. Could you tell me what your identified pronouns are?” After the person responds, provide your own pronouns to demonstrate a response. Provide positive reinforcement when your child asks the question.

• Note: It is recommended by the American Psychological Association (APA) to ask someone their identified pronouns rather than assume their pronouns when you begin a conversation. (American Psychological Association. (2021). Inclusive language guidelines: https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equity-diversity-inclusion/language-guidelines.pdf)

• Introduce the use of they / them for strangers. When you do not know what pronouns someone uses, it is recommended by the APA to use the singular “they” in place of “he” or “she.” When you are with your child, practice using the pronoun “they” for people that you do not know. For example, when walking in the park, you can point out a person walking their dog and say, “They are walking their dog. They are having a lot of fun.” Stress the use of the pronoun “they” when speaking. This may be a difficult concept for your child to fully grasp, so it is recommended to guide your child when they are learning this behavior, such as gently correcting your child when they use “he” or “she” for a stranger.

• Note: It is recommended by the APA to use the pronouns they / them / theirs for someone if you do not know their pronouns and cannot ask or find the information. (American Psychological Association. (2021). Inclusive language guidelines: https://www.apa.org/about/apa/equity-diversity-inclusion/language-guidelines.pdf)

• Shortcut words. Write two simple sentences or use text from a book or story that your child is familiar with. Ensure that the first sentence includes a Proper Name (for example, “George”) and the second sentence includes the appropriate pronoun (for example, “he”). This will be your example to show your child. The sentence may say something like this:  “George went to the store. He couldn’t find the bananas.” Make sure that the text is at an appropriate reading level for your child and show your child which word is the “shortcut” (he) and which word the “shortcut” refers to (George). Next, write or use two new sentences of the same structure. For example: “Alice wanted to play. She was not allowed to play.” Have your child read the sentences and ask your child to identify the word in the first sentence (Alice) that could replace the shortcut word in the second sentence. When your child is able to correctly identify the word that can be replaced by the shortcut word, praise and encourage your child as a form of positive reinforcement.
• Additional Resources:

• For the parents:

Teaching Pronouns to Kids with Autism & Avoiding Pronoun Reversal

Teaching Pronouns - Speech Therapy | "He", "She", "They" (speechandlanguagekids.com)

• For the child:

Pronouns | LearnEnglish Kids (britishcouncil.org)

Pronouns for Kids - YouTube

Personal Pronouns for Kids - YouTube

In order to help your child master the long-term goal of grammar, you can work with your child on the short-term goals of using correct prepositions and using correct pronouns.

Using Correct Prepositions

For the short-term goal of using correct prepositions, you can choose a target such as using “on,” using “under,” using “next to” or “beside,” using “behind”, identifying a sequence of positions, etc.

• Step 1: Decide what prepositions you would like your child to learn. For example, you can choose the target of using “on” while working on the short-term goal of using correct prepositions. The task analysis for using “on” could be as follows:

1. Take your toy and place it on a flat surface, such as on a table.
2. Walk around the toy and examine its position.
3. State where the toy is. For example, you can say, “The toy is on the table.”

• Step 2: An initial/specific discriminative stimulus (SD) should be selected that will cue your child that the task will start. This SD can be a visual SD, such as an image of a toy sitting on a chair, or a verbal SD (“Time to find the toy!” or “Let’s say where the toy is!”).
• Step 3: Collect baseline level data by providing the SD from Step 2 and allowing your child to attempt independently. The baseline level will vary according to your child and their specific abilities. Take data on which steps were accurately done independently. For example, you can count how many steps in a row (from the task analysis in Step 1) your child can complete independently. Alternatively, if your child is able to complete the entire task analysis independently, record how long it takes your child to complete it independently (e.g., 1 min, 2 min, etc.).
• Step 4: To begin the trial to monitor progress towards meeting the target (i.e., the target of using “on”), provide the SD from Step 2 and allow your child to attempt independently. When your child is successful, provide reinforcement. If the reinforcer for the behavior is a tangible item, such as a small snack or a token for a token board, ensure that it is provided with a great deal of verbal praise. Ideally, you want your child’s positive behavior to be supported solely by social reinforcement. If the behavior was not displayed, end the trial and provide the appropriate level of prompting on the following trial. For example, employ a model prompt to show your child what to do at the beginning of the following trial (e.g., model for your child how to place the toy on top of the table, followed by saying, “The toy is on the table.”).
• Step 5: Collect data on how your child makes progress. For example, count how many steps in a row (from the task analysis in Step 1) your child can complete independently. Decide if you want to utilize forwards or backwards chaining to teach the steps that your child may struggle to complete independently. Alternatively, you can track progress by recording how long it takes your child to complete all the steps from the task analysis in Step 1. Or, alternatively, you can track progress by counting the number of successful attempts at using “on” during a session. 
• Step 6: Track how your child makes progress to meet the target of using “on” by comparing with either a number threshold or a percentage threshold (necessary to meet the target). For example, you can record the number of successful attempts at using “on” over a certain number of sessions, and compare that with the number threshold necessary to meet the target. Alternatively, you can record what percentage of times your child can complete all the steps from the task analysis in Step 1, and compare that with the percentage threshold necessary to meet the target.

Using Correct Pronouns

For the short-term goal of using correct pronouns, you can choose a target such as, using correct pronouns for family members, using correct pronouns for friends, using correct pronouns for strangers, etc.

• Step 1: Decide what pronouns you would like your child to learn to use. For example, you can choose the target of using correct pronouns for family members while working on the short-term goal of using correct pronouns. Select a picture as follows: one image of a family member (e.g., an extended family member). For this example, we will use a picture of (fictional) Aunt Molly who uses she / her pronouns.
• Step 2: An initial/specific discriminative stimulus (SD) should be selected that will cue your child that the task will start. This SD can be a visual SD, such as the image of a cartoon family or a picture of your family, or a verbal SD (“Time to learn pronouns!” or “Let’s say these pronouns!”).
• Step 3: Collect baseline level data by providing the SD from Step 2 and allowing your child to attempt independently to use correct pronouns for family members for which you prompted. The baseline level will vary according to your child and their specific abilities. As an example, you can count how many times in a row your child is able to independently use correct pronouns for family members you prompted for. Alternatively, you can count how many times within a given time interval (e.g., 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, etc.) your child was able to independently use correct pronouns for family members you prompted for. 
• Step 4: To begin the trial to monitor progress towards meeting the target (i.e., the target of using correct pronouns for family members), provide the SD from Step 2 and allow your child to attempt independently. When your child is successful, provide reinforcement. If the reinforcer for the behavior is a tangible item, such as a small snack or a token for a token board, ensure that it is provided with a great deal of verbal praise. Ideally, you want your child’s positive behavior to be supported solely by social reinforcement. If the behavior was not displayed, end the trial and provide the appropriate level of prompting on the following trial. For example, you can show your child the image of Aunt Molly and say “This is Aunt Molly. She is your aunt. She is my sibling. She is very nice. Her favorite food is pasta.” Stress the use of Aunt Molly’s pronouns when you speak.
• Step 5: Collect data on how your child makes progress. For example, count how many times in a row your child can meet the target of using correct pronouns for family members independently. Alternatively, you can track progress by recording how long it takes your child to meet the target of using correct pronouns for family members independently. Or, alternatively, you can track progress by counting the number of successful attempts at using correct pronouns for family members during a session. 
• Step 6: Track how your child makes progress to meet the target of using correct pronouns for family members by comparing with either a number threshold or a percentage threshold (necessary to meet the target). For example, you can record the number of successful attempts at using correct pronouns for family members over a certain number of sessions, and compare that with the number threshold necessary to meet the target. Alternatively, you can record what percentage of times your child can use correct pronouns for family members, and compare that with the percentage threshold necessary to meet the target.