Gender References

Nope..... at this point, she is just learning about "personal pronouns"..... He, She, her, his..... don't worry about it.

My daughter is 5 and gets her "he's" and "she's" mixed up. She knows which is which it just seems like, for her, her tongue and brain hiccup.

I think your daughter refers to her plushies as "her's" because she's a "her". It's the term she hear around the house most. She's most comfortable with other "her's". No big deal.

I think it's pretty normal. I named all my dolls and stuffed animals girl names.

Last night, I was talking to a friend and her little 3 year old said, "I want to talk to him". Her mom said, "She's not a him, she's a her, silly."
Her little girl knew it was me but she said "him".
It takes a while to get things figured out.

Plus, I think little kids can refer to their "pretend" playmates as pretty much anything they want.

Just my opinion.

Well, my son referred to all of his stuffed animals at him - even the clearly female ones. So he would say - Can I take mommy puppy in the car, he wants to go to the store. I think it is just learning about pronouns and she will get it figured out.

My son does similar things with he/she, his/her. I think it's more of a language development thing than an understanding issue. In fact, my husband, for whom English is a second language, sometimes does the same thing your son does:)

It is not a big deal.
My kids name or call their toys/stuffed toys, she or he... and name them.
As they wish.
No big deal.

ALSO... keep in mind, that Gender references... to objects, are cultural as well. Not every culture has the same naming "rules" per gender, like in American culture.

There is a distinct... gender "name" to objects, versus people.
2 separate categories.
In French for example: some objects are in the female gender and some in the male gender. A "fly" for example, is always referred to as a "she."
Who knows why, but it is their LANGUAGE rules... and not per gender.... per say. It is a language grammar, rule.

Your child, is NORMAL.
All this is normal developmental, stages.
All normal.
Heck, I even refer to my stuffed animals (that I had since childhood) as a "she" or "he."
No biggie.

Pretend play... and role playing... goes on throughout childhood and is manifested differently... per age juncture and per age phase and stage.
AS a child ages.... then later when older, they definitely know more, "accuracy" about our language structure and gender "roles" per naming... objects.
Pretend Play... is a very important and integral part... of development.
And your child is doing so, normally.

Both my kids at that age... had PRETEND friends... of both genders. But most of them, (for my daughter) were girls. And for my son... most of his pretend friends, were boys.
Just like themselves.

My son is 6, and he just started using she for girls. He has known for a long time the difference between boys and girls, but he still referred to everything and everyone as "he". Totally normal.

more than likely she hears her more than him in your house. as in "give her her elmo" pick up her shoes" etc....

When my son was 2-3 he did the same thing. He stopped as he got older. When he was 3 he also liked to dress in dresses and pretend he was a girl. If he saw a movie he only wanted to pretend to be a girl character. Now at age 7 he does not do this anymore. I think he just liked the gentleness of girls/his mom and related better to girls at that age.

I wonder if it's because, since she's a girl, she hears the female pronoun more often? Interesting...

2 and 3 year olds are still learning both language and gender concepts. By 4 or so most kids have some concept of gender differences although their ideas can be very stereotypical. Kids often identify with the same gender people when they are that age too. In our house most of the gender neutral animals are "he" if they belong to my son and "she" if they belong to my daughter (my kids are 3 and 5). Some are supposed to be certain cartoon characters and so the gender matches the character (like Dora & Diego). I think on tv Elmo is a he but they play it pretty gender neutral so a toddler might not notice.

She is 22 months old, a baby. That is why she refers to everyone as her.

Yes, it is normal for children at this age to be focused on their own gender, to play with same-gender children and to prefer the same-gender parent. Once they get older (probably 5-7), they branch out a bit, but for now it seems to be a way for them to explore themselves and what they as a boy/girl means.