Children commonly use proper nouns instead of possessive pronouns, such as saying “Fido’s bone” instead of “his bone,” and may refer to themselves using a third-person pronoun or their name instead of using the possessive “mine.” They may also have difficulty distinguishing between plural and singular possessives, such as "yours" and "your."
Children typically learn possessive pronouns through repetition. Spend 15 minutes a day with your children conducting activities that improve their pronoun use. Correct your children throughout the day if they use pronouns incorrectly. Do not become frustrated if your child learns at a slow pace due to age or a learning disability, because negative emotions associated with learning will decrease the speed at which your child learns.
Children can use worksheets to improve their use of possessive pronouns. With this method, a child will read a sentence with the pronoun missing and will then look at a picture to determine the correct tense of the pronoun. You can determine which possessives your child gets wrong on a consistent basis and tailor future worksheets to the use of specific possessive pronouns.
You can ask your child questions, and then have him say the correct possessive pronoun. For example, you can point to your shirt and ask whose shirt it is. Your child would then say, "It is your shirt." Use her personal belongings to teach the pronouns “yours,” “mine” and “ours.” You can use pictures or other people to teach your child the pronouns “hers,” “his” and “theirs.”
Create a memory game with matching cards that feature a picture that describes possession. For example, two cards can feature a person pointing to two other people for the possessive “theirs.” Lay the cards picture-down, and then have the child pick up two cards and try to match the pictures. When he picks up each card, he will have to say the correct pronoun so he can pick up the cards. If multiple children play the game, the child with the most pairs of cards wins.