3 year old boy (Noah) missing in Brantham, Suffolk

[LabubuTERF]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cr5yev2v1x29o

Oh God bless him! Every parents worse nightmare!

So sad, awful situation that could happen to anyone
Thinking of the parents and whole family

Presumably they are not certain what happened yet?

Oh no... I saw a video earlier of the water and had a horrible feeling that this would be the case. So very, very sad. The poor family... I cannot begin to imagine the pain they will be experiencing. I feel so very sorry for the Grandfather... I hope they all have proper support surrounding them. I suppose at least it hasn't dragged on with them in limbo for days and days... not meaning that to come across badly at all. This is such a horrendous situation

Rest in peace little one

Devastating news - have been thinking of Noah’s family and friends all day x

Such a sad outcome.

RIP little one x

Have seen the update, my heart is broken.

I'm so sorry little Noah and his family.
I have a 3 year old who is a runner, he's so fast and does not stop when I call him back. So I can completely understand how this can happen. It's just awful that there was a lake so close to where he ran off. 😭

Of course it’s because the family may come across it. It’s called respect.

Heartbroken for Noah and his family.

It was always the most likely outcome but it's such a shame. I'm glad his family will have closure though because that's never a certainty if a child is missing. Rip little one.

I’ve just seen the news. Utterly tragic, the poor little boy and his family.

Poor little boy, RIP angel

Could someone answer a genuine question?
I know what non verbal means, but is it a case a child doesn't want to speak or are they not able to?
I'd appreciate any info

So, so sad. Poor little boy 😢

I think it's pretty obvious to most of us, he certainly wasn't put in the water by a migrant.

This has seriously upset me

Can be either and can be hard to tell. Some physically can’t make the sounds, others have never know/understood to try as obviously wired very differently and some can physically talk but do not engage with others.

My heart is breaking. I have an ND runner and I know it could happen to any of us. Hold your babies close tonight.

My son was completely non verbal until the age of 6. No attempts to talk at all.

Suddenly one day he and his sister started communicating in jargon, and as she grew older, she actually translated for him.

Around the age of 8 he then started sounding like he had swallowed a thesaurus.

He was diagnosed with autism at 3, and had intensive speech and language therapy/makaton starting even before that. But it's like he just woke up with the ability to speak one day.

It makes me angry that things like this happen in our world. Just heartbroken.

Poor child and his family. RIP Noah xxx

Absolutely heartbreaking, I can’t even begin to imagine how the family, particularly the grandfather is feeling.. just an awful outcome that felt inevitable but everybody hoped was wrong.

Found dead. Poor child.

The terminology is much argued over, but non verbal is usually used to mean without language. Non speaking can mean the individual uses alternative verbal communication like signing or a communication device.

People misuse terms especially now there are so many self diagnosed social media influencers posting long, articulate reels in which they talk about " going non verbal" - which is not actually being "non verbal" but is selective mutism. Obviously the word selective is itself misleading - nobody is deliberately choosing to be unable to speak but it's an involuntary response to a situation or setting. So people want to use the term "non verbal" incorrectly because their selective mutism is misunderstood...

A three year old autistic child who elopes towards water and has no sense of danger and is described as non verbal probably is genuinely non verbal - not able to produce verbal communication even if they have some understanding of spoken language (which not everyone does).