How many non verbal children did you know growing up? How many do you know now?

None and none. But I do see some due to working with children, and I’m always surprised by how many of these ‘non verbal’ children do actually speak to me.

I don’t know, I’d have to say none and two.

We had a SEN block in school so didn’t come into contact with children with additional needs.

At primary school age in the 1980s I knew a few children with learning difficulties a couple of whom were non verbal (siblings of school friends). I also knew a fair number of adults who primarily communicated through makaton via my mother’s work. Today I know of three I think, and a school friend of my daughter was very delayed with his speech but is catching up now.

1 now 0

I was non verbal. I know no non verbal kids now.

I didn't know any growing up. But working as a teacher, I've met a few. It has absolutely zero to do with "parenting and screen time", so not sure why you even mentioned it at all.

7 then and 3 now.

I didn't know any, not because they didn't exist, but because they would have been in special school (no SEN in mainstream back then) or institutionised.

I was thinking similar the other day.

Growing up in a school where I was in a large class of 40 and often put with the class above of 30+ I suspect 1 showed ADHD signs none were NV.

I now know 3 nv kids personally and 2 in a primary school.
Several have adhd/ asd (one of these is one of my dc).

I never gave and still don't give dc much screen time.

Your social circle would have been much smaller when you were growing up.

2 growing up, a family member and a little boy I used to volunteer with and none now.

I knew one growing up.
I’m a teacher and I have one in my class now although he will go to special school when he gets all the paperwork in place!

None and none.

The number you know is likely largely a feature of your circle. Gowing up all the children I knew were either my classmates at (mainstream/ academically selective) school, peers at extracurricular clubs or the siblings of my close friends, which is going to include far fewer children who couldn't attend mainstream school than an average cross-section of society.

As an adult my circle is much wider and the children I 'know' (some I only know of from their parents rather than having actually met them) include the children of the wide range of adults I know - so there's less selective pressure on the characteristics of the children themselves. (So whilst I can't think of any non- verbal children I know, I do know more children with a wider range of conditions than I knew I growing up).

There's also probably a clustering effect: if you know one, you're more likely to know more than one, due to a number of reasons - genetics, some causes of non-verbalism may have genetic components, or the one child you know attends services for children with similar needs thus your extended network immediately includes a number of children with similar needs or you know the children because you yourself are a part of providing/access services for children with additional needs. Factors like location will also feature probably - if there are good specialist services locally it may attract families to the area, and in general you may get more children with severe needs in less wealthy areas (due to the impact the care needs of the child have on ability of parents to continue/progress in paid employment).

You are a beautiful human being and this makes me so happy for the children you teach. The world needs more of you. A rare gem. ♥️

Zero and zero from me too.

None that I remember growing up in the 60s/70s and none now.

1 and 3. That doesn't include my ds2 who can talk to his friends like any other teenager, talks to me in one word answers and doesn't talk to people he doesn't know at all. The social worker said he was "unable to communicate his needs".

One when I was growing up, and none now

None and none. Although apparently DH was a late talker (then diagnosed ASD at 4). Our 2 year old has amazing speech, very talkative and he gets lots of screen time at home.

Another down for none and none.

Now? None. However, I worked with one when I was a secondary school teacher (in a mainstream school). The parent insisted on placing the child in mainstream, but later changed their mind.

When I was a child - one. An older autistic girl. (I was a child in the 1960s.)

I can’t think of anyone growing up. Now I know one.

1 when I was growing up- the patents were deaf and mute and the child as well so I guess was genetic. I know 2 now due to ASD.

None and none

But I live a mainstream life i
e. Not much exposure to those who may be non verbal

20 years ago I worked in an afterschool child care setting for ages 4+ I was there 5 years and seen hundreds off children come through the doors there wasn't any non verbal children over the time I was there also none diagnosed asd there was a total off 2 that I remember diagnosed with adhd and very few children had alligies. I left that line off work and returned to child care 3 years ago and was surprised at how many non verbal/asd/adhd/alligies children there is now coming through our doors. Why the huge increase I don't know my own dd has asd and she certainly doesn't have screen time 247.