To wonder if I will have a conversation with my son one day

Lucky you...I was told my dd, now 5, is fine....still waiting for her to become conversational.
She know alphabets, related words and counting and colors..etc...her receptive language is quite fine.

If he's 3 and he has all those words I'm certain you will be having conversations in a few years time. Prepare to learn a lot about Minecraft in another few years.

My eldest was non verbal till 7(!) Nothing at all till then.

He now works in radio! You would never know.

My 11yo DS (ASD) completely ignores you... until you mention anything about one of his special interests, then he runs up to you and doesn't stop talking about it

Sounds just like my 3.4 month old. No Dx but an understanding he is not 100% typical. SALT said it was early to be concerned a year ago but gave us lots of tips. We felt he could talk, but didn't want to.

Long story short he is now verging on coherent. His sentence structure is bizarre at times but his vocab has exploded this year, mostly since starting in his childcare setting. 'I want that one not please' etc instead of no! When he says 'lub you mummy' I still sniffle as I thought I'd never hear it! Hope your DS is the same.

In a very similar situation to your right now! Sending positive thoughts!

my 11 y old has complex disabilities and asd is one of them.
he was completely non verbal till he was 6 and half.
i thought he would never talk

with in months it was full conversations and hes been he same ever since

he has ADD as well and now talks non stop about anything and everything.

My little sister also had a speech delay due to a slight hearing problem as an infant and ASD. She hardly spoke at all before she was 5. She's now 25 and still struggles to pronounce the odd word, but is a total chatterbox. She lives in another country so speaks the native language there, but has even managed to pick up a few words and phrases in English. I think the fact that your son can say so many words and phrases at 3 is very positive and he will only improve as he gets older

DS was a late speaker, and when he started speaking had severe speech difficulties. Now you can't make him stop speaking.

I was told my son would never be able to speak, read or write when he was 3. He's now 12 and can do all 3 of these things plus much more! He's amazing ❤️

My advice to anyone who was where I was 10'years ago...they do it when they are ready. I wish I hadn't spent so much time worrying (which is completely natural) as time really does go so fast. I used to spend hours researching, looking for cures, learning makaton etc when really I should of been spending that time with my beautiful little boy ❤️

He managed mainstream primary school but now goes to an sen secondary and he's an absolute legend!

My son only just started saying words and he’s nearly 4, and the words he do say no 1 understands him but I do, may take a bit of time but he will get there in the end :)

That's great progress! You must be so proud of him ☺️ I'm sure you'll be chatting away together eventually.

It's just a matter of time.

Aww there are some lovely stories here OP 😌

You can still chatter away to him and in time the amount of chatter you get back will increase. He's your son, you know him best and it sounds like you are doing so well with him

My dd had few words and a crippling stammer as a toddler.
A shed load of private speech therapy, starting school and the entire family modelling correct speech meant she was talking clearly by the end of year 1. The stammer went as well.

Every child on the spectrum is different, some learn to talk, some don't! But my childrens stories might give you some hope. Some children are just speech delayed, doesn't mean they are autistic.

Ds (now 11) was totally non verbal until 4ish. He literally didn't say a single word, had no non verbal communication skills either, he got frustrated, he had no understanding of basic concepts and speech therapy was not helping either.

Fast forward to about 4.5, his speech pretty much exploded, it was when he started school it really came on. He is 11 now and doesn't stop talking, been signed off speech therapy etc. His speech is still a little immature for his age but considering where he was a few years ago, he's doing great. You can have a conversation with him and he understands everything. He is on the spectrum, diagnosed aged 5.

My youngest Dd was also speech delayed but not autistic. She didn't say many words untik 3.5 - 4 buy it was just her speech, her understanding, non verbal social skills etc were all on track, it was just speech she struggled with. Now at 7 she doesn't stop talking either.

I’ve said it before on here, but a BiL barely uttered at all until he was 3. MiL told me she’d been getting very worried.

He later won a scholarship to Cambridge, is not on the spectrum, and can hold a normally intelligent conversation with anyone about just about anything.

My son was the same! He's 3y 5m now and has only been saying proper words since the start of the year. He doesn't have sentences yet and can only ask for a few select things but he's improving every day. Preschool has helped massively.

I think it’s positive that he’s speaking already.

I know some adults with ASD who are non verbal to everyone - except their Mum who they hold full conversations with.

He sounds like he is making good progress - and you are doing all the right things.

Just to give a comparison though our SEN/LD child was still in nappies until he was 12 and then suddenly out of the blue toilet trained himself in a week - so you never know what may happen in the future.

My father didn't speak until he was 4.

In the course of his career he gave tens of thousands of speeches and presentations and interviews, sometimes to hundreds of people at a time. He always refused to be interviewed by R4's Today though, because of the early start.

Your son may well surprise you, but he's already brilliant, as you know of course

Don’t worry. My DS was the same. He’s an adult now and we have long chats about anything and everything! We can talk for hours. He does still struggle at times getting his thoughts into order, as to what he wants to say, but he gets there.