To ask for your very late talker success stories?

A little boy I look after is ASD and did not begin to talk until he was almost 4 years old. To begin with it was just the odd word - and unintelligible to anyone other than his mum. But then after he started school at 4 1/2 his speech development increased dramatically, perhaps in response to the need to make himself understood (at home he had mainly used his own form of sign language).
A year after starting school he was able to engage in a conversation and, providing the other person knew the context, could make himself understood to strangers.

My friend’s son didn’t talk until he was 4 (just made noises prior). He is now 6 and talks fluently in sentences. His speech just snowballed when he turned 4 and he caught up very quickly! He is doing well in mainstream school, can hold conversations, initiate conversations etc. Some things for you to consider that could help:

• Read the Hanen book “it takes two to talk”. A little pricey but most of the strategies a speech therapist would tell you to implement are in there. It is very detailed with examples, images and guidance on how you can help
• read the Hanen book “more than words”. It follows on from the book mentioned above.
• implement a communication tool at home to help your child to communicate. PECS (picture exchange) is great for two reasons - your child can use pictures (chosen by you to suit needs) to communicate to encourage interaction and alleviate frustrations, and the words underneath the images on the cards will help your child to read. My friend’s child who used this tool is now also a fluent reader. If you don’t want to use PECS then you can try a communication board (core 30 or core 50).
• Hanen also do free courses where you will get access to a speech therapist and attend weekly sessions (with observations). It will also give you an opportunity to speak to other parents who are in a similar position to you. Have a look on their website to apply.

Hang in there and give your child time, some children just talk late! 🌸

My eldest is autistic. He was non-verbal until nearly 3. I didn't know anything about autism at the time but wondered about his hearing, which was assessed as fine. Then suddenly he said 4 words in one week, all 3-syllable words and one of which was a very inventive word he had made up to mean something specific that he didn't know the real word for. It became clear that he may not have been talking, but he'd been doing a whole lot of listening, as he spoke increasingly fluently after that. Shortly afterwards it became apparent that he could also read.

Late speech runs in our family, as does autism, but the overlap isn't as complete as you might imagine. DS2 was late to speak but is neurotypical. DS3 is autistic but was early to speak. I'm autistic but was early/average to speak, but my sister didn't talk until 3 and is NT (which may be why I didn't worry much about DS1).

I personally wouldn't worry unduly at 2.5, especially if you suspect autism. They're all a bit different but imo 2.5 is within the range of normality.

I think the main thing that helped was his own desire to communicate. A lot of his aggression was due to frustration. My younger son is also autistic and his path has been very different.

my eldest was dx at 2 and a half and we had a home visiting early years teacher coming three times a week. We took him to a child development centre and had sessions there too, I also spent hours on the floor every day not forcing engagement just doing things and letting him watch or participate or not as he chose. I modelled conversations by speaking his part too, just loads of stuff every day for years and years. Sort of reached into his world and let him choose to follow me into mine or not.

We had to fight so hard for everything. The fights we had to get the resources were crazy! We were told he'd never talk because if 'they' don't talk by his age they never talk. The professionals used to get so angry with us because we refused to accept their prediction and teach him makaton, put him in a special school and make him become the person they'd decided he was going to be.

I don't think we really did anything special. He became the person he was always going to be, in his own time.

My son was barely talking at nursery at 3 and a half- they wanted us to go to council led speech therapy but then Covid happened so we couldn't attend. The nursery staff bless them did ask the service for some exercises they could do with him at the nursery to try and bring him along.

Anyway he has just finished his year 2 and he is very chatty and performing above expectations for his English, and you'd never have guessed where he was at nursery.

Also agreeing with others, check with audiology, and remember that glue ear etc can take several appointments to determine. We ended up going private for audiology, but that’s one of the first things to get checked to rule out.

Yes as per pp - first thing is to check they can hear! Referal to audiology asap…

My son. Very slow to walk or talk. Awful tantrums lasting deep into school age.

Currently in the other room preparing UCAS applications to study music. Plays four instruments and performs regularly. Probably autistic, but said he didn’t want to be assessed. Also studying double maths and physics for A Level: Plan B was civil
engineering. Barely scraped a pass in Eng Lang/Lit GCSEs - but was all 8s & 9s in STEM.

Both my DSes are autistic and have a learning disability. When they were 4 and 2, neither was talking and we were tearing our hair out (also lots of other challenges with both).

I remember our NHS speech therapist telling us she thought they both would eventually talk. At 4 the eldest started talking and now chatters away though much is stuff he's memorised. Our youngest at 8 has just started talking.

Never give up!

Just wanted to say Wow! to this. How amazing!

@YoucancallmeBettyDraper sending you all best wishes.

Getting dc to talk (and also walk - that didn’t happen until nearly 3 as well) was my sole job in life: I quit my job and had a part time nanny help look after other dc. My life revolved around classes, appointments and drop in sessions. I researched everything going offered by the local community paediatric service and went to everything - the key being the drop in SALT sessions that led to the 1-2-1 sessions. GP was involved and hospital and community paed.

you’ve got to be completely on the ball and advocate for your dc and do your own research and follow every lead up.

apologies for spelling out the obvious but this is my lived experience

Mine too. I felt awful actually discovered he was basically deaf ... he won't shut up now though!

Wracking my brains for more things that helped…. The play therapist got me to print out photos of family members and stapled together a little book. We went through it constantly pointing and naming everyone and that’s how he eventually learnt to say mummy and daddy and his sister’s name

My son didn’t start talking until 2.5 (a few words) but he’d had speech therapist input from about 20 months. I had kept a very close eye on his milestones and had him referred as soon as possible (while talking talking talking to him constantly, singing, exposing him to as much therapeutic play as possible).

what really helped was makaton and sing and sign, alongside the weekly speech therapy and play therapy.

he started talking fluently at 3.5 and is now very advanced

My daughter is now 10 and autistic. Didn't say a word until gone 3. She now has amazing speech. Her communication is weak but her speech is insanely sophisticated. There's always potential

That’s great for your son! But my 7 year old also passed the Year 1 phonics test and yet can’t answer ‘what did you have for lunch today’. I think the op is looking for signs her son will be able to talk to her, not just repeat given words (obviously it’s a start).

My beautiful boy was non verbal until about three. Made noises and screeched a lot. Once he turned four I was on a countdown until he started school because by then he was talking but it was just gibberish, almost like his own language and I was so worried the other children would laugh at him.

An educational psychologist came to do a home visit and said there were no signs of autism. When he started school his teacher laughed and said he was a lot clearer than some children. He was fine, he started talking because he had to, to get by.

He’s in his twenties now with a first class degree and a good job but more importantly he’s a wonderful person and we laugh together about all his “dah dah” language and silent years.

Yes, I can absolutely understand looking for answers but don’t build your son on false hope. Being non verbal doesn’t mean he won’t learn how to communicate and that is just (if not more) important. I have one child who developed full speech between 2 and 3 after not meeting verbal milestones at all. I have another who was using words by one but can’t communicate well at all by 7. Agree with this post, intervention and communication therapy as early as possible, and as hard as it is, go with how things go OP.

Can’t believe I forgot this one, I took online Makaton classes which helped unbelievably well - my little one was able to
communicate with signing long before they could talk, and it really helped support language development

Dh was a late talker and walker. He didn’t do either until 2.5, then took off speaking in sentences. He is mildly dyslexic and did need some support with that in school. But otherwise completely ordinary. He did fine in school. Got a 2:1 at university. Is a successful company director. Not autistic, but some children really just need to go at their own speed.

My son spoke his first word at 3.5
“buh” (bird)

Just scored 40/40 in his phonics test at end of year 1. It’s hard but there is hope. Makaton helped me break through

I have autism. I didn’t speak at all until around 4. Then the first thing I said was apparently “top of the pops” when I was watching it on TV (Mum and Dad always used to let me sit in front of the TV really closely and watch it as I loved it). Mum thought she’d imagined it when I first said it. I then carried on as if I’d always spoken. I was reading Road Dahl books out loud to my Mum after that from about 5 onwards. I had all the language skills etc for some reason I just didn’t verbalise anything!