How many non verbal children did you know growing up? How many do you know now?

[MaryMaryVeryContrary]

Not a goady thread and I wont be engaging with posters who want to speculate on the causes by starting debates about parenting and screen time.

But in the absence of any proper data, I’m interested to know whether others think there has been a rise in non verbal children (age 3 and over). I didn’t know any growing up, and now I know 3. So it seems to me there has been a rise but it may just be the area I live in.

None and none

Define non verbal.
A 3 year old?13 ?
Learning disabilities? Asd?

Zero and zero

None and none.

None growing up

Four now.
I work in a Sen school

None and none x

1 and 0

None and none

None and none

I knew none growing up but then I was on a mainstream school not looking for them. Now I am an ASN teacher working with primarily non-verbal children so personally know a lot.

What I will say is non-verbal does not mean non-thinking, a lot of non-verbal children are clever little people, once you tap into their way of communicating and build a bond with them it’s amazing what they know and understand.

0
now 4

I know it’s a blunt instrument but let’s say age 3+ (as not speaking until 2 can be normal development), unable to speak at all (rather than a bit delayed), for a reason that can’t be medically tested for (so I suppose ASD counts for the purposes of this thread as there’s no physical test for it).

None and None - I'm 61

One - from age 5/6 onwards...
Don't know any now, but know 4 with other speech impediments like only whispering & stutter.

I growing up.

Now 1 selective mute and 1 fully non verbal child.

None when I was growing up but I know 2 now (children of friends)

None and none.

OP this is going to depend so much on which circles you move in. I don’t think there anything to suggest there are more non-verbal children than before, they just weren’t in mainstream schooling but now they are more likely to be.

Several growing up but one now, but my brother attended a special needs school so I mixed in circles where I was more likely to come across people with different needs. I suspect there isn't so much a rise in non verbal children but rather a greater acknowledgement/acceptance that they exist more broadly within society. Disability awareness still has a long way to go, but even 20 years ago having a severely disabled child (as non verbal children usually are) was still a taboo and they were largely hidden/kept out of mainstream society. This is, rightly, changing. Slowly.

None. And none.

Zero and two.

There were quite a lot of non verbal children in the disabled children groups I volunteered with as a teenager in the 80s. They just didn't spend much time in public sight.

I think there has been a rise. I also know many people with children with ASD, whereas I didn’t know anyone with it when I was a child. I don’t think it’s only down to an increase in diagnosis.

None None

One and one.

None and none (but several in my 20s when I volunteered with a special needs charity).