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 daughter didn’t speak until she was 3. I think she once said ‘bear’ when she was 2, but nothing after that. Just a few noises. We were told by the health visitor that because she could communicate in other ways (ie pointing) then she didn’t feel the need for speech. Because she didn’t have any other worrying signs they said we wouldn’t get seen by a speech therapist. She was very late toilet training due to severe constipation but no other issues medically. She can’t bear any sort of loud noise though (neither can I).

When she did start speaking she had a wide vocabulary. The only sound she had issue with was ‘L’ but soon sorted it. She’s 6 now and zero vocabulary issues.

DD2 made noises until she was 3 but no talking. When she started saying some words she had a stutter. Luckily she was referred to a Speech Therapist and she spent 2 years having therapy. She now talks (and talks) at 18. No autism.

DD2 didn't say a word at 2 . Not a thing.
Almost zero til she was 3 and then it came out in sentences, like she was waiting to be able to do it properly. No autism , very bright and in an excellent career and an excellent public speaker.
DS2 on the other hand no speech til 4, impossible to understand til he was 8. He does have ASD but is very articulate now but with a few interesting speech errors and learning difficulties.
Kindly, at 2 your child cannot have a severe speech delay.. he's 2. Many many children speak late. Sometimes it runs in the family, sometimes it's just them. Very very few otherwise typical individuals can't speak and if he's otherwise developing fine, it will happen.
Just sign (I worked in special ed for 20 years and think all babies/younsters could benefit) and talk to him as you would anyway and it will come.
My grandson was also a very late talker so we signed and gradually the words came although he still struggles with quite a few sounds at 5. It will come.

I think it's sounds like a lot of the kids mentioned here have either very high functioning ASD or dyspraxia that have caused the speech delay, no diagnosis doesn't mean they don't have it. DS is very bright, very good career but has ASD and dyspraxia (not diagnosed till secondary age and then only by chance). Late dribbling is a sign of dyspraxia, DS dribbled till 5 but had a good vocabulary and spoke fine - it just depends how you are affected.

If you have ND conditions (ASD/ADHD/dyslexia/dyspraxia etc) in the family and your child has a speech delay of any sort then the chances have got to be very high that they have one ND condition or another - even if they're very able and clever.

I certainly wouldn't rule ASD out at 2 OP! That's very little, I had no idea at that age. I also wouldn't jump to conclusions. CAS/verbal dyspraxia is another form of neurodivergence just like ASD is. Do you have neurodivergence in the family?

For now OP I would spend as much time talking to him as you can - basically narrate everything you do in that way that MN would call 'performative parenting' ie 'oh look do you want to go on the slide now, it's a nice blue slide isn't it? with lots of steps. How many steps are there I wonder? Shall we count them?'

Also spend as much time playing with him as you can. We had a lot of blocks and then tubs of farm animals, zoo animals and a train set and I would make a zoo/farm with him and then we'd feed and water the animals and the tractor would break down, one of the animals would escape and I'd tell the story of what was happening and get ds involved - or we'd build the train set and a village with a shop and have people buying things to take on the train and someone would miss the train etc.

Also start reading to him, books with lots of big pictures and very few words for now.

For now OP I would spend as much time talking to him as you can - basically narrate everything you do in that way that MN would call 'performative parenting' ie 'oh look do you want to go on the slide now, it's a nice blue slide isn't it? with lots of steps. How many steps are there I wonder? Shall we count them?'

I would use simpler language.

Yes this is what I’ve been told as I’ve had a few phone calls with SLPs who strongly suspect apraxia, hence my concern. And the advise is to only speak in 1-2 words phrases

That’s amazing so it was just his big tonsils that were the problem?

Did she babble before this or show any signs of frustration at not being able to get her words out?

Friend’s daughter didn’t walk until nearly 2 and was even later talking. She is now a geography teacher and not autistic as far as I know.

Yes. It was, once removed his speech was fine they said he must have hurt to talk.

Signing counts as language, that's a great indicator. My daughter signed and said about 5-10 words at 2.5. I was so worried. At 3, she's got 6 word sentences and more words than I can count, with 2-10 new words used every day. It's incredible how quickly it can change.

DS babbled but didn't speak until he had grommets for glue ear. With some SALT he caught up very quickly.

One of mine didn't speak until 3. Then it rapidly developed into full sentences.
He was walking confidently at just under 10 months and riding a pedalled bike at 3 without stabilisers. That love of physical challenge/sensory seeking behaviour continues to this day in playing rugby, rock climbing etc.
He was slow to develop academically until it all started to click into place at around 16 years and he got all As in his A levels.
Now has a professional career, a masters degree, a lovely girlfriend.
You wouldn't guess he was neurodiverse...ADHD (as have I).
Try not to worry OP.
Use sign language, use PECs if necessary, but try not to fret as he will pick up on this. He will get there.

Have you actually spoken to anyone? He's doesn't sound severely delayed to me. I was told signs count as words, that they're not expecting many words at 2 so he may have that covered through signs

And even when I was worried at 2.5, I was told as long as receptive language (understanding you) was good and improving, and they were showing signs of wanting to communicate (sign, point etc), then they'd likely have a language explosion soon and 'catch up'.

I wish this were true but I’ve spoken to a few different SLTs who have confirmed he has a significant speech impairment because he ‘should’be saying at least something by now…

they strongly suspected apraxia. I’m only going by what the professionals have jsaid

OK, apologies. Hopefully they can give you the support he needs. And if not, bsl is a great language to know and you've done him a real service teaching him it so young.

This is reassuring - thanks for sharing. I’ve been told he should have one or two words or animal noises and it’s very concerning there’s no babble and that he used to say animal noises at 12
months but then dropped them x

@Wwonderiinn no, no babbling at all. I don’t remember any frustration.

One comment re hearing - we were living in the US at this time for clarity - we self referred at age 2 due to lack of speech and had a hearing test that he passed with flying colours but by age nearly three still very little intelligible speech - boo for book etc - so we requested another hearing test and as he was a little older they did a different style of test and he failed miserably. When the doctor did his ear tubes operation he commented that he couldn’t have heard very much at all so maybe keep on with speech therapy but maybe get another hearing test in 6 months or so to double check - can’t do any harm to recheck these things

DS passed all his hearing tests as they only used a test of the nerve. That was and is fine, but the glue ear meant he couldn't hear well at all. But it was obvious from day to day interactions, just took forever to get a proper hearing test.

My ex didn’t speak till he was 4 but was also in a trilingual household. Then he suddenly caught up and chatted to his Oma and no one else. You’d never know it now. Absolutely high functioning autistic. (Academic.)

My daughter was diagnosed at 3 with developmental verbal dyspraxia, which I’m guessing is the same or similar to CAS? This was by a private speech therapist. She only had about 8 words and didn’t really understand signing (she would copy signs when I did them but wouldn’t use them to tell me things). After a few months the therapist said she might need (when old enough) to go to a school that provided extra help, and mentioned one not too far away that had a speech and language centre. Turns out they had a nursery attached and she was able to start the following term. They applied for funding and my daughter received 30mins of speech therapy daily with an amazing teacher. After the first year she was talking quite a lot, and after the second year (by the end of reception) she didn’t need speech therapy any more. She’s now 7 and speaks perfectly. She does show some autistic traits (mainly stimming) but has not been referred for assessment and as far as we know is not autistic. It might be worth looking to see if there is anything similar in your area (we’re in Surrey). Try not to worry too much, they have great capacity for improvement at this age. Best of luck!

Yes - the doc said there was so much gunk that our little one could have heard v little - he needed grommets twice to help with build up

My son didnt talk until he was 3. The health visitor was talking about a referral to speech therapy when he suddenly started talking in full sentences. He didnt do any babbling like normal kids he had one noise with variations, so I'd understand if he was hungry, thirsty or needed the loo but no-one apart from my husband could tell them apart.

Pretty much nothing until 3.

He was clever though, knew his colours and numbers etc early.

We had an older, very experienced health visitor luckily, who reassured me when I had a wobble.

By 3 and a half, he was off and chatting away.

Its really very common with boys, and can be a sign of intelligence.