Good sign or wishful thinking?

[HeartOfCrystal]

Ds is awaiting any form of SALT or dx (none so far), he is totally non verbal (no sign pec cards but we are working on that) Anyway over the past few days he has been trying to mimic what we say example he climbs we say "get down" he says ge gown and he's been doing it with most things we say (somethings i'd rather him not repeat though, as we haven't been very careful about colourful language at times)
Is this progress? Or am i deluding myself because am soooo frustrated. What where the first signs of communication with your speech delayed dc's?

[asteroids]

I don't have any experience of this but it sounds like your son is making progress. I'd recommend that you encourage him, praise him and avoid using colourful language in his presence. Keep pushing for dx though as any additional support will help.

[cyberseraphim]

It's definitely progress - It may be echolalia which is a sign that awareness of language is developing. Try to encourage him to learn useful echolalic phrases like 'want biscuit' or 'need juice'. Say the phrase whenever you physically give him the item.

[TotalChaos]

agree with cyber. it's good as he's showing an interest in speech and can make the speech sounds more or less. echolalia can be like a bridge towards language - in that a child wants to say something to you, isn't quite sure what to say, so just repeats back your words.

[HeartOfCrystal]

Thankyou both sometimes just think ah am imagining things rather then dare to hope. slightly crazy i know.

[HeartOfCrystal]

Hi total, nice to speak to you again . I've got my fingers crossed it is progress x

[TotalChaos]

article with loads of info about echolalia:-

www.spdsupport.org.uk/echolalia.html

[mysonben]

Seems like echolalia indeed, and i agree it is progress.
DS used mostly echolalia when he started speaking.

[HeartOfCrystal]

Thankyou total very good link

Mysonben well time will tell, am hoping it will be the start even if it's a long slow process. I can't wait to hear his voice.

[ouryve]

It's great progress. Echolalia is often a precursor to meaningful speech. DS1 learnt to tell us stuff quoting from Peppa Pig!

[HeartOfCrystal]

ouryve am silently hoping it's a step forward, my son is more of an iggle piggle fan prob not the best from a speech point of view haha. Its funny how he has just seemed to start it in the last few days before that nothing. Hopefully i will have a HUGE proud mummy moment in the next few weeks/months

[TotalChaos]

surprisingly INTG if anything had a helpful effect on DS - some of his earliest pretend play was putting makka pakka plastic toys to bed(!). I did groan inwardly when i saw the trailers as I imagined DS would be forever chanting mikka makka moo et al, but that never happened fortunately.