Severe speech delay at 2 to 3 without autism, did your child talk later?

[Wwonderiinn]

Anyone kids with severe speech delays age 3 who didn’t show signs of autism - still go on to talk?

If so did they….

Completely non verbal at age 2?

Babble and make lots of sounds before the actually started on words?

Did they say the odd ‘popout’ word or sound and then never again?

We’re the gesturing and communicating in all other ways? Inc sign

Were the focussed and engaged and otherwise seemed like they wanted to talk ?

Did they get very frustrated and just make one constant ‘eh’ or ‘aaaaaaaaah’ shouting / strained sound?

Any other significant things did or didn’t do before they started talking or did you ever realise why?

I’m concerned my son has Childhood Apraxia of speech as his presentation even at 2 is already matching this. I’m holding out hope and this is why I’ve written this post. We will still obviously get him the support he needs but it breaks my heart to think he could have this condition.

I really just want to enjoy these early years; he’s such a delightful boy but it breaks my heart to think he could be trapped in a body that can’t speak and even if he does manage to learn, it’ll be years if not a decade of intense therapy which we don’t have the money for..we will find it somehow though..

Also, autism has pretty much been ruled out at this stage as he has absolutely no traits apart from being non verbal

Thanks 🙏

My son could say about 5 words when he turned 2, he did start babbling more, would sometimes say a word and then not say it again for a long time, between 2.5-3 he slowly started saying more, he’s about to turn 3 and can say some 3-4 word sentences and a lot of single words. He can name colours and count to 10.

Some of the things he says would probably be hard for other people to understand. He doesn’t talk much around people he doesn’t know/ at nursery.

I have friends with children up to 6 months younger and they are now saying more than my son, I’d probably say he’s 6 months behind.

Have you seen speech and language? Can you self refer?

We’ve only just been referred as they said he had to be two before it would be accepted -
my son isn’t saying anything at all and is basically non verbal apart from ‘eh’ he says this quite a lot in place of words xx

Dd didn’t talk at all at 2. Not one sound or word. At 2.5 she had an absolute explosion in vocabulary and hasnt stopped talking since - but only ever at home. Everywhere else she is silent. She had an ASD diagnosis at 3.

Thanks for sharing. Were there any other signs of ASD at this point and was the HV concerned at all?

My DS was the same, diagnosed ASD/ADHD age 7

Did he show any signs before then?

Have you had his hearing tested? (Other than as a newborn). If not, I would request an audiology appointment. Hearing is not just there or not, it is also about quality of sound heard. It might not be the whole picture but could be part of it.

yes he had it checked a month ago and all fine!

My son didn’t talk till 7, he talks now he still gets muddled with longer sentences and paragraphs at 15 & he’s a selective mute. But he’s doing well.

My friends son got to 3 without speaking, he kind of said ButBut all the time. Turned out he couldn’t hear welll and needed grommets. After that he caught up immediately. The thing was that he seemed like he could hear. His mum certainly never noticed any deafness.

is your sone communicating in other ways. Pointing, making his own signs for words and lots of gesturing.
id look at signalong on line and start using some simple signs whilst waiting for the speech appt.

Signing is everything. Changed our life. DD didnt say words until 4.5yrs. I trained in makaton I loved it so much

My three DDs were all speech delayed. DD2 and 3 were severely speech delayed (i.e. grunting at 3, a few words at just turned 4). DD3, summer born, couldn’t really talk when she started school. People would ask me what school DD1 (then Y6) was going to, and were frankly amazed that the sister of a non-talker was going to a grammar school.

By 5 all three were good talkers. DD1 and 2 have since graduated (both with firsts - unashamed boast), and both have good graduate jobs. DD3 is off to a RG university in the autumn.

The only remaining sign of the speech issues is DD2’s tendency to dribble a lot - her pillow is soaked every morning.

However, there is a massive history of severe speech delayed in my family - this is the fourth generation of speech delayed children that we know of. For some reason, it seems to affect the girls in my family more than the boys. Actually, the only boy who was delayed was also autistic.

Yes he’s been signing since he was 9-10 months and we communicate a lot that way xx

Did you find out the reason for speaking so late? I am learning sign currently and he’s been using it since he was a baby xx

If he has just turned 2 then he won’t have severe speech delay yet. Some children do have some delay in acquiring speech but pick it up a few months later than others so whilst it is definitely worth pursuing the speech and language therapy referral, I wouldn’t get too carried away with thoughts of decades of intense therapy. I would however look up advice on how to support and interact with a child with speech delay. Make sure you continue communicate well with them - narrating their activities in simple language.

Makaton can also be helpful to support communication in many children - you may well experience difficult behaviour as a result of their frustration with their communication difficulties. All two year olds have that (‘terrible twos’) but it can be harder for those without speech. Hence Makaton can help support communication.

As far as counting words - ‘words’ are any consistent sound used in a consistent way. Not just clearly identifiable words.

My son had 0 words at 2, was very frustrated, grunted a lot and was unhappy.

Then, one day at 26 months he just started talking. Like floodgates had opened. No nd or other issues. Just a very late talker.

Yes, very restricted eating, would get shaky often we thought initially seizures but it was fear - we started to realise it was happening when we went out / to busy places / noisy places or if anyone approached her etc. Nursery had concerns as she would never want to be anywhere near other children and just wanted to find corners to line toys up in and would never eat or drink there. She would only communicate with us by hand leading.

My 16 year old did not have a single word at 2 and possibly half a dozen at the age of 3. He was very delayed in everything- still in nappies at 5. Wewere very worried.

He was diagnosed witb autism at 3. His development was always in jumps. He started talking around 5-6 and hasn't stopped since. His vocab is great. He is predicted to get an 8-9 in English language and literature and in French.

DH was speech delayed, it was his hearing to an extent but it was also his older sister by two years filled the void. She still talks at people constantly and is a PITA, very domineering, his behaviour still changes a little when she is around. She has never had any success dating and to me it’s pretty obvious why, it’s like being blasted by a continuous stream of dominantion. I’m a talker but discovered what can't get a word in edgeways really means when I met her.

Slightly different as DS could say a few words around 1 and then stopped speaking completely until just before his 3rd birthday. He had the 3 year review almost a month early because of my concerns around ASD and passed it no problem at all and no concern from HV who told me she expected him to just talk when he was ready. Within weeks he could name 10 different species of dinosaur and never stopped talking…. At nearly 16 he still waxes lyrical on dinosaurs (his special interest)

Other signs of autism- frankly we didn't really see any. He was our first child and we had nothing to compare him with. The other childen at baby and toddler groups were a bit older than him in months and DH kept saying that if he was 22 months and the others were 26 months that was a fairly big portion of life at that age.

Our pre-school suggested we get him tested - well, the manager said 'Face it, he's a little weird' which meant we drew him out immediately and went to a different school because I was so disgusted at that approach. Then his new school about 6 months later suggested we get him tested too. I was absolutely floored.

Anyway, he was disgnosed and has subsequently been diagnosed with ADHD and tourettes as well.

It's fine. He is who he is and he's fabulous. Massive parenting learning curve and without doubt the best experience of my life.

Oh- and he didn't babble or say anything at all before he started talking. His first words were 'dah' which meant anything. That was about 12 months at least before he added a second word- 'drum'. Which meant anything that wasn't 'dah'. He did scream though. He would just suddenly shriek.

thanks for sharing 🙏 Did he babble at all or make the odd pop up sound / word?

My DS wasn't speaking at 2. By 3 he did have short sentences but was quite hard to understand. He was offered speech therapy but I was confident that he was picking it up in his own time. I did have his hearing checked.

Interestingly he was showing other signs of autism. Not making eye contact, hands over his ears at noise, very poor sleep. I do not think he has autism as he's gotten older these habits have disappeared.

Some kids, especially boys just take a bit longer. He's now older and doing very well at school.

My DB little one was like your DC. When he was three he had his tonsils out. He then started talking more and totally fine now. He was under a speech therapist who said he had oral dyspraxia but changed her mind when he went back after his tonsil were removed . Check all obvious signs hearing is obvious but also tonsils