Causes of speech regression in toddler OTHER than autism?

[DanceMonkey19]

Just that really. Worried sick about ds. At 16 months was beginning to talk, had 20+ words. By 21 months had stopped. Had lots of tests that all came back clear, now just waiting on referrals to various services. So desperately worried that it's autism. What else would cause this??

Brain tumour
Serious degenerative neurological or genetic condition
Hearing loss.
Selective mutism.
Stress
Malnutrition..

....autism is not the worst diagnosis....but speech or lack or or regression alone is not the defining indicator

Why would autism diagnosis worry you the most?

Thanks for your reply. Most of those have been ruled out. Autism scares me as there's little prospect of improvement if is severe

DD had this too. It coincided with her younger brother's birth. She had speech therapy, and started preschool which helped immensely.

She's still a bit of a character and I'm not entirely reassured she doesn't have something but at the moment she's happy, thriving and friendly. She gets easily overwhelmed and can be quite emotionally fragile, but she's made friends and I'm really happy with the school we're hoping she'll get a place at.

Even if your child does turn out to be autistic, don't panic. It'll be your job to help them navigate the world, so start getting your practice in now, pushing for speech help etc. But really, it's nothing to be scared of - no-one is guaranteed good health their whole life, you never know what's round the corner. Roll with it.

My son didn’t want to speak at all TIL he was three. So he didn’t. He’s fine.

Well he’s autistic but very mild and you would only see a very bright driven but shy child.

OP I interact with students with autism all the time. You'd be amazed at the progress they make. I actually shed a tear watching a case study the other day of how one student had changed. Inspiring stuff.

Has his hearing been checked? This would be done by Audiology not just a standard test.

Screens, screens and screens.
Parents just do not realise how much they can affect speech, so if he is spending more time on screens, this might be one of the reasons. IF not, at least you have ruled out a possible cause.

Hi op. My DD stopped talking at 18 months. She had plenty of words up until then. I was worried sick and the advice was all a bit naff and things I did regardless. Eventually her speech just came back. Without any reason.
Just as a side note she has a very large over bite and drooled a lot till recently (she’s nearly 3). I don’t know if that has anything to do with it.

All children with autism are individuals
You dont know what they may or may not be able to achieve.
Not sure what you mean really...by no progress... the autism if it s there wont go away but even with autism at the low functioning end and SLD my ds has a good life.... if your ds has autism you will get the right input and do your best for him. If it s something else then same.

My sons speech regressed, he was younger though. He was diagnosed with autism at 2 didnt speak again until he was 4, didnt come out of nappies until 5

At one point he was 2 years behind , dodnt make eye contact , sensor issues , especially with sound were severe so we couldnt go out without meltdowns. Needed 1:1 at nursery

Hes now 6, makes eye contact, has friends, deals much better with noise, has caught up in every way. Hes very bright, very good at English and maths and hasnt needed 1:1 since starting foundation

The little prospect of improvement if severe is rubbish

When he was 3 i never thought hed speak never mind that we'd have people not even realising/believing that hes autistic like we do now

everyflight and embrace Im genuinely happy to hear that your dc are happy and everyflight especially that's amazing progress! Unfortunately I have a family member who is severely affected, can't live independently etc so this is my biggest fear.

My ds needs 24/7 supervision but lives in his own house supported living independently but with 24/7 support ...people who need 24 /7 supervision can still move on.
So is severely affected like your family member.

Dont get too far ahead of yourself

Bethany how odd... So glad that speech returned though

Hopeful bump

My child didn’t speak any recognisable words until they started reception.
They still struggle a bit but otherwise a healthy child. It can just happen with some kids.

Best to be aware and keep an eye on it, but at that age there isn’t much else you can do except encourage them positively.

My son had a big speech regression. He is autistic, but now talks like a grown up at three. It's very funny. When he went through all his testing his fine motor skills came up well above his age so it was as if he was diverting resources to that part of his brain rather than talking.

Of course you are right to worry, I worry. But it is more worry about how I will cope and make sure he's getting what he needs. So often, it falls to parents to fight for the right provision, the right strategies and even how you deal with him yourself isn't what you would have expected. You can worry because it might not be easy, but it will be worth it.

My son stopped talking at 18 months. Had small sentences up until then and then nothing. Zilch. Lots of echolalia though. Took him to a doctor at two who said not to worry, boys just take a bit longer. Was formally diagnosed with a speech disorder at 3.5 and had over 8 years of speech therapy. Got autism funding as found to have some spectrum like behaviors (eg lining up cars, staring at fans etc)

It's controversial and unpopular but I am convinced it was linked to his 18 month shots.

I can understand the concern about low functioning autism. It could involve parental care far beyond what other children need and possibly for the whole of the parents life. Hard work despite how much you love them.

Speech delay isn’t uncommon in young children. Make sure you’re getting professional help to diagnose and support your child. Chat to them as much as possible doing day to day activity, lots of books, learn Makaton too, it helps them communicate non verbally.

My cousin did this. Didn't start speaking until she was 3 after regressing. No rhyme or reason to it - she is currently doing her A levels after an impressive set of GCSE results. Absolutely nothing wrong with her.

Wow custard, that's amazing that your sons reaction was documented to confirm it was vaccinations. Can we read the report they wrote?

Aluminium is removed from the body naturally via your kidneys so unless your child has kidney disease? And we get far more aluminium ingested via the saucepans than the MMR

FYI my son went selectively mute at that age because of ONE comment saying he sounded strange and couldn't understand him boom he stopped talking

Glue ear and hearing is the first obvious and easy to check out thing you can work on getting eliminated (if you're pushing for referrals to things like SALT it'll be the first thing they'll ask you if it's been checked out so it's a sensible first step). Didn't take long or be much of an annoying one to get referred to when we needed to do it either - phonecall to the HV who just put us straight on to audiology.

DD2 started acquiring words then just went back to unintelligible strings of jargon... turned out to be verbal (and general) dyspraxia. She had minimal intelligible speech until about 4 1/2 and now is a bright little chatterbox - still with some speech idiosyncrasies and slightly behind the curve getting solid on the last few speech sounds but totally doing fine.

Could well be an element of anxiety in it as well - especially if you're starting to get really stressed about it all as well.