Late talkers with little babbling as babies: did speech catch up?

[Wonderinggg]

Has anyone had a child who was essentially non-verbal at 2 and also wasn’t much of a babbler as a baby, but still went on to develop normal speech?

My son is 2 and has no meaningful words yet. He understands a lot, follows instructions, points to communicate, has good eye contact, responds to his name, plays well with other children, shows joint attention, and a consultant paediatrician felt he does not show signs suggestive of autism.

One thing that worries me is that he wasn’t really doing the typical reciprocal babbling at 10–12 months. He would copy some sounds, but never seemed to go through a strong babbling stage.

We’re under speech and language therapy and have had a neurological assessment which was reassuring, but I’m finding it hard not to worry about his future speech.

I’d love to hear from parents whose children were late talkers, especially if they weren’t babbling much as babies. When did speech eventually emerge, and how are they doing now?

Thank you.

Not my child, but my sister — never babbled at all, had no words until 23 months and then just suddenly started talking in sentences. Totally normal adult.

My first was a slightly late talker (comfortable at home to talk but not outside) was fine by 5. I also have twins (aged 17). Dt1 who is autistic spoke very well early on. Dt2 didn't speak or make much noise until 3, but by starting school seemed to have caught up. Dt2 did have speech and language and other assessments and never found any issues.
Both got good gcses and are currently studying at a selective sixth-form and predicted a/a☆.
My dn didn't speak till 3 and is now 8 and never shuts up, has been diagnosed with adhd and we suspect dyslexia but no diagnosis (not sure if these are linked to the late speaking).
Try not to worry too much dc develop at different rates. What i would suggest is you document things as they crop up even small details because if there are issues picked up later its easy to map a timeline (I say this who has two dc with medical needs and asd and it has helped me many times).

All 3 of my cousins kids were late talkers and had speech therapy. 1 out of the 3 is autistic but speaks well now, all 3 kids very bright and you wouldn’t guess that they were late to talking.

Yes, my friends daughter. One day she suddenly started speaking in full sentences and never stopped talking. She's in university now

As you've had all the other tests and interventions I presume you've had a hearing test done too? Responding to instructions doesn't mean he hears clearly, and it's amazing how much a bright child can understand from context and gestures and facial expressions etc. without hearing clearly.

I do know (presumed) neurotypical children without hearing loss who talked very late and essentially did the "suddenly talking in sentences", but only bilingual and trilingual children. Doesn't mean monolingual children don't do it though obviously!

Yes. DD was like this. She did have about 20 ish words at age 2 but a lot of them were only intelligible to me/Dh. Her speech just slowly developed and by age 3.5 she was talking in sentences and now age 9 you would never know, she is very articulate! Not related to autism at all, she was just a slow talker.

I had twins one babbled and still does and is amazing - the other ‘observed’ . When she eventually spoke it was a full sentence ( albeit still garbled) . She’s just finished her PhD having done a masters at Cambridge ( stem subject).

What do SALT think is going on? Are you doing all the home work with him? My DS was similar and he did make very good progress but (a) I put huge amounts of work in at home and (b) there was no explosion as all the people uptbread are describing and (c) he is still not quite where his peers are, at 8.