AttributeError: 'User' object has no attribute 'list_communication_channels'

[somerandom48]

Hi just trying to run the update_observers_notification_preferences.py script.
it all runs and it pulls the courses and the observers on the courses and then runs the update_user_notification_preferences(user, "never") line of code on each observer user but I seem to get this error
AttributeError: 'User' object has no attribute 'list_communication_channels'

not quite sure what I'm doing wrong any help would be great.
thanks so much