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

I growing up, my friends brother, severely autistic .

Now I know a handful, mixture of autism and other miscellaneous severe disabilities. My dd was non verbal until 4 but learned to speak, she's autistic, and has unusual skills in certain areas just not social interactions!

Lots growing up, but only because my cousin went to a SEN school. 1 now, my nephew, severely autistic.

My brother (born 1960) didn't speak until he was four.

As for school aged children... well we didn't see them. They didn't go to shool. In fact in my generation they didn't go to special schools either. Many of them got locked up in residential children's 'mental homes'.

The daughter of one of my mum's friends had to go to one of those places for two weeks for reasons I wasn't party to. My mum went to see her and took me with her. It was the most traumatic of visits. The children there were like the children I spent my career working with in special schools. Except they were just crowded in a room, given no attention, and were rocking and wailing One was just wearing a nappy and smearing her faeces on the wall.

That was c 1968. 30 years later I'd look at some of my pupils and know that that's where they'd have been, and who they would have been, just a few decades earlier.

Sorry...a bit of a tangent. But basically we can't compare numbers of 'people we came across' in different periods. Thank goodness we're now in a time when people with disabilities are visible.

None growing up.

I have met one child who was 3 and non verbal, but he seemed to understand everything, and in every other way seemed like any other happy go lucky and curious 3 year old. His Mum was on the spectrum and believed the boy to be as well.

There is also a child at the local school in reception who can't speak yet, but he seems to have additional needs.

That's it, and I have met a lot of small children (but I'm not a teacher or medical professional).

None growing up, 3 now.

Years ago children with learning disabilities went to special schools. These days they are often encouraged to attend a regular school at least for some time

Zero and zero.

None and none (presently in day to day life)

i did work though in a sen school for teenagers with GDD and autism and they were all non verbal. Most did use other forms of communication.

None growing up, but now 100's. I work in an autism assessment team though.

None and 5

I don't think non verbal children would have been in mainstream education whereas now they are.

I am still not sure what you mean or what you trying to say. My ds in his 20s has no verbal speech. He uses aac to his level. He has a microdeletion syndrome. In his SEN school there were several who had no verbal speech. Any child who hasn't verbal speech well there will be a reason genetic syndrome or other. Even if undiagnosed syndrome. Who are these children you know? Do they have SEN ? Are they otherwise cognitively able? Or have eg c p? . Are they using aac to communicate?

I work in a SEN school and the majority of the students are non verbal, but I don’t know any non-verbal children (discounting babies!) outside of work; no children of friends/ family/ colleagues/ neighbours etc.

Growing up I had an adopted relative who was profoundly disabled and non verbal and one of our neighbours had a son with autism who was non verbal and at a specialist residential school.

So 2 in my group of family/ friends/ neighbours growing up. 0 now.

One girl with selective mutism, who disappeared from school by the end of term. My brother didn't speak much until he was about 9 - it was believed he couldn't read, but he definitely could; he just wouldn't/couldn't perform on demand to prove it.

The rest were hidden away/never made it into school in the first place.

None and none!

1 & 0.

Three. Well two and one was my dad who didn't utter a word until he was almost 5. My brother has verbal dyspraxia and didn't speak properly until he was over 12 and DD didn't speak until she was 3.5. My dad is a professional but very quiet in nature. My DD has been diagnosed with ASC albeit 'high functioning', but she speaks clearly and has good language skills although her inference skills are nowhere near in line with where her numeracy skills are. She has however passed 11+. My brother is 40 and has had a lifetime of therapy. He's sadly turned to drink and drugs due to confidence issues.

There's a couple of cousins on my dad's side who didn't speak and then had unintelligible speech and one was in and out of prison I believe.

I think today we are more aware how late speech can affect development and that is why we talk about it more and don't do as my parents did and say, 'oh it'll come.' They refused to let my brother have what we now call EHCP. He's a shadow of the little sweet boy he once was.

None and none (but several in my 20s when I volunteered with a special needs charity).

One and one.

None None

I think there has been a rise. I also know many people with children with ASD, whereas I didn’t know anyone with it when I was a child. I don’t think it’s only down to an increase in diagnosis.

There were quite a lot of non verbal children in the disabled children groups I volunteered with as a teenager in the 80s. They just didn't spend much time in public sight.

Zero and two.

None. And none.

Several growing up but one now, but my brother attended a special needs school so I mixed in circles where I was more likely to come across people with different needs. I suspect there isn't so much a rise in non verbal children but rather a greater acknowledgement/acceptance that they exist more broadly within society. Disability awareness still has a long way to go, but even 20 years ago having a severely disabled child (as non verbal children usually are) was still a taboo and they were largely hidden/kept out of mainstream society. This is, rightly, changing. Slowly.