Page 4 | Toddler 22 months not pointing or talking

Newmomma2705 · 2020-04-02T08:32:24+00:00

Hi, my DD has just turned 22 months, she has been referred to a peadeatrician but due to long waiting lists and current corona I don't know how long the appointment will take to come through. We are very worried about her she is not pointing to communicate and cannot say any words only babble dada baba mama yaya ta but not in any context. She does have good eye contact, doesn't always respond to her name. She has no sensory issues at all, eats and sleeps well, doesnt react to loud sounds or changes of routine. She does enjoy her stacking blocks, but wouldn't say it was repetitive she stacks them and looks for approval from us and smiles and claps when finishes. (Yes she can clap) when I haven't been with her she smiles and claps when I come in the room. She doesn't really interact with children she basically completely ignores them (some adults as well) she goes to nursery and enjoys it she walks in and doesn't cry and the nursery teachers said they have no worries aboit eye contact just thay she doesn't play with her peers (although she will go up to them if they have food). She is playful loves being chased and loves peek a boo. does this sound like autism or a speech and language/ communication problem? Could she grow out of it or what can I do to help bring her development along? Her understanding is also a big concern as she understands no and some other things but very limited. If I asked her to get shoes, bring teddy she would have absolutely no idea but if I pass her shoes she will put them on and walk to the door. Thanks x

KBB3 · 08/04/2025 20:04

Hi @Mummyboy90, I totally get your concerns and worries as when it’s your child you just want them best for them. I have an autistic daughter and she is amazing… she can talk, point etc. but I think it’s important to look at the positives… some advice from an autism mum, is meet your child where they are at instead of always looking where “they should be” once you start early intervention and communicating age appropriate to them they will come on leaps and bounds… don’t be scared of asd. It doesn’t mean there’s anything “wrong” with your child they just need a different communication style… he will make progress and he will meet new milestones like all children but he may just do it at his own pace. Please do not be worried about flapping hands. It’s actually really cute he’s expressing his happiness and this should not be suppressed.. he is perfect the way he is and is exactly who he’s meant to be, all you can do is support him and get him the right therapies to help him find communication a little easier.. don’t be scared of the journey because you can’t change him as a person instead enjoy all the new milestones and huge wins to come! In a year of therapy my daughter has progressed amazingly, she talks, plays with her peers, has nearly all receptive language.. but she still struggles to communicate socially but that is coming! She is 3 years and 4 months old.. but that doesn’t mean she’s not autistic.. she’s still very much herself with her little quirks which I love about her and never want to change because that makes her who she is.. but she’s coming on leaps and bounds because I accepted her and met her where she was at and I believe she senses that. She knows we are her biggest cheerleaders and everyone in her life including her therapists give her so much love and guidance that’s she’s responding amazing, try and let that fear and worry go… not all of it! But just the extreme fear of asd or silly fears about flapping hands… none of that matters. All that matters he is happy, healthy and supported… all the rest will come! Good luck in your journey! Keep us posted! X

KysMum · 26/04/2025 16:08

3boysmumma · 09/11/2021 14:16

@Newmomma2705 Thank you for your reply. Reading your message bought tears to my eyes, I'm so happy you DD is doing so well and speaking hundreds of words, what amazing progress and all through these difficult times with covid too, I'm sure that has not helped our LOs with being in lockdown for so long. It is really reassuring that the speach therapists are saying its not autism too. Funny you mentioned about a hearing test, we had one a few months back which came back inconclusive so we have booked a private one which is this week. My DS doesn't always turn when I call him but hears music and loves songs especially at play group and nursery, he is always full of smiles and giggles, loves playing chase with his 4 yr old brother and trys to give other children toys/teddy's etc, he has brilliant eye contact and uses it quite well when trying to communicate. He doesn't point at things he wants or wave but takes my hand and leads me then raises his arms to be picked up. He doesn't have any sensory issues either but has in the last couple of weeks started hitting his head (not hard) but enough to make me more concerned, he doesn't have a good comprehension but knows his feet and understands "shoes on, sit up, no, get down" but like your DD wouldn't be able to go get a toy etc if I asked him. He's always such a happy little boy and very chilled out, loves his food and sleep. I am just so worried it is something very serious. Xx

@3boysmumma this is exactly my DS now and is 25 months. I wonder how yours is doing?

Mummyboy90 · 24/05/2025 12:36

KBB3 · 08/04/2025 20:04

Hi @Mummyboy90, I totally get your concerns and worries as when it’s your child you just want them best for them. I have an autistic daughter and she is amazing… she can talk, point etc. but I think it’s important to look at the positives… some advice from an autism mum, is meet your child where they are at instead of always looking where “they should be” once you start early intervention and communicating age appropriate to them they will come on leaps and bounds… don’t be scared of asd. It doesn’t mean there’s anything “wrong” with your child they just need a different communication style… he will make progress and he will meet new milestones like all children but he may just do it at his own pace. Please do not be worried about flapping hands. It’s actually really cute he’s expressing his happiness and this should not be suppressed.. he is perfect the way he is and is exactly who he’s meant to be, all you can do is support him and get him the right therapies to help him find communication a little easier.. don’t be scared of the journey because you can’t change him as a person instead enjoy all the new milestones and huge wins to come! In a year of therapy my daughter has progressed amazingly, she talks, plays with her peers, has nearly all receptive language.. but she still struggles to communicate socially but that is coming! She is 3 years and 4 months old.. but that doesn’t mean she’s not autistic.. she’s still very much herself with her little quirks which I love about her and never want to change because that makes her who she is.. but she’s coming on leaps and bounds because I accepted her and met her where she was at and I believe she senses that. She knows we are her biggest cheerleaders and everyone in her life including her therapists give her so much love and guidance that’s she’s responding amazing, try and let that fear and worry go… not all of it! But just the extreme fear of asd or silly fears about flapping hands… none of that matters. All that matters he is happy, healthy and supported… all the rest will come! Good luck in your journey! Keep us posted! X

@KBB3 we starting the speech therapy and the special instructor hopefully next week, and regarding the hand flapping he seems to be doing it less now, maybe once in few days, we still haven't gotten a diagnosis,but we starting early intervention, do you recommend any strategies like books to improve the receptive language and speech , thank you.

Shambhawi21 · 17/06/2025 13:20

How was you child doing
Please reply

Shambhawi · 17/06/2025 20:50

Boymum25 · 13/10/2023 00:34

Hi @Natashalee99!

My son is 35 months old now, 3 years at the beginning of November! He has just recently (at the end of September this year) began an early intervention nursery with specialist services and 5 other children like him. He is still completely non-verbal, no words as of yet - but he makes a whole range of new sounds these days that gives me hope that we're getting closer to speaking.

He still does not wave/point, and only every so often he'll respond to his name. He has no sense of danger, eloping at any given opportunity. Since starting nursery he has started showing an increased interest in playing, and has recently started to take my hand and lead me in and out of the living room/kitchen/garden. His eye contact is very good these days, and he's become such an affectionate little boy giving kisses, cuddles out of nowhere and whenever he feels like it. But he still doesn't seem to understand much of/anything I say to him.

Spinning, swaying, twirling, climbing, hes a major sensory seeker and I'm still really only just coming to an understanding of what that really means. We have just met with a new speech therapist and occupational therapist who will be monitoring him once a month during nursery and forming an opinion based on their analysis - he doesn't have any diagnosis just yet but we're quite confident he's autistic. I'm just following his lead now and although it's still early days, we've noticed a major improvement in him socially since beginning early intervention!

How was your child doing now?

Shambhawi · 17/06/2025 21:00

Boymum25 · 13/10/2023 00:34

Hi @Natashalee99!

My son is 35 months old now, 3 years at the beginning of November! He has just recently (at the end of September this year) began an early intervention nursery with specialist services and 5 other children like him. He is still completely non-verbal, no words as of yet - but he makes a whole range of new sounds these days that gives me hope that we're getting closer to speaking.

He still does not wave/point, and only every so often he'll respond to his name. He has no sense of danger, eloping at any given opportunity. Since starting nursery he has started showing an increased interest in playing, and has recently started to take my hand and lead me in and out of the living room/kitchen/garden. His eye contact is very good these days, and he's become such an affectionate little boy giving kisses, cuddles out of nowhere and whenever he feels like it. But he still doesn't seem to understand much of/anything I say to him.

Spinning, swaying, twirling, climbing, hes a major sensory seeker and I'm still really only just coming to an understanding of what that really means. We have just met with a new speech therapist and occupational therapist who will be monitoring him once a month during nursery and forming an opinion based on their analysis - he doesn't have any diagnosis just yet but we're quite confident he's autistic. I'm just following his lead now and although it's still early days, we've noticed a major improvement in him socially since beginning early intervention!

I am very tensed about my child speech please reply is your child verbal

Shambhawi · 18/06/2025 07:10

Fatherabir · 15/09/2023 06:16

Hi, my 21 month old has been very active since birth, but since he skipped the landmark of recognising his name and both of us parents by 15 months, we got worried and gave sometime, but now he has crossed the age of speaking milestone too and hasn’t spoken a single word, we have a elder son and we never compared his growth to the younger one until now, the younger one was exposed to cocomelon since birth and was glued to TV for hours. Now we are worried as he has poor eye contact, no spoken words only some blabbers, he brings tumbler if he is thirsty but no pointing, no waving or anything. Though he loves to play peek-a-boo passively, smiles at us when we play with him, walks properly and climbs the chair and bed easily, anyone who has seen similar behaviour in the children and they came out perfectly normal, or should we start worrying deeply ?

How was your son doing he is same as my child I am also from india please reply

Mummyboy90 · 18/06/2025 15:55

@Shambhawi hi mom, mine is 32 months now, pointing occasionally, but just began speaking some words now, he using these flash cards and he is doing well with it, he repeats after flash cards and we doing speech therapy and language therapy too, there have been improvement since I last posted and he dropped a lot things that made us worried, but have haven't had diagnosis yet, good luck with your little one.

Shambhawi · 18/06/2025 19:21

Lilyyy77 · 01/03/2024 01:00

@ToddlerMumma21
Hi would you mind sharing what is it that is worrying you about your baby?

For me it was really hard it stills is. She would have so many meltdowns in the beginning and very intense. She still does but not as bad as in the beginning. I worked from home so I relied a lot on the tv and she watched cocomelon a lot. I feel so guilty now, I cry a lot tbh. Her receptive language and expressive language are very poor.

I’m kind of treating her like a new born in a way that I’m teaching everything from scratch since I was not having much interaction with her due to work overload and house work on top of that. I quit my job and now I’m fully dedicated to her. Sometimes I feel like there’s no progress but when I look back to when we started 6 weeks ago I realize the progress. The work overload just became a routine until I realized how far behind my little girl was. I had never tried teaching her these things before until this past month and a half. It has been hard work since she was not used to me being this interactive. In the beginning she was so bothered but now she comes up to me and her dad doing hand gestures according to the song she wants us to sing to her. And when she does something she’s proud of for example: sorting shapes she looks at us and claps and wants us to clap and celebrate with her. This was nonexistent before. It was a lot of work and she had a lot of meltdowns meltdowns to teach her how sort out shapes and stack blocks. Also, the pointing is not perfect as she still points with he while hand at times but we are working on it everyday.

During my search of her symptoms I came across “Durable Human” where they explain how screen time affect children especially those before the age of 2. And how alot of them start to display autistic-like-symptoms. I’ve been following their protocol which is zero screen time and intensive face-to-face interaction and so far she has done so much progress.

she will start speech therapy soon so let’s see what the speech therapy observes and suggests.

How was your child doing right now

Shambhawi · 19/06/2025 14:37

Natashalee99 · 13/10/2023 00:06

Hi @Boymum25, I hope you're well. I was wondering if you could provide me an update on your Lo? My little one is currently 20 months and he doesn't wave/point. He still smiles and laughs and babbles as well, but when I read your post I found a few similarties between our kids which is why I'm asking for an update? Mine also paces back and forth a lot and when he is not doing this, he is either busy spinning toys or playing with cars. He is literally obsessed with spinning toys or anything round to spin.

His eye contacts are OK and he does respond to his name, although not all the time. HV came to my house a few weeks ago and he made very good eye contacts with her and also responded to his name. He is good at responding to his name when strangers call him but tends to ignore me sometimes.

He won't bring his toys over to me but he does bring books over to me to read out to him and sometimes he will grab a blanket and bring that over so I can play hide and seek with him. If I go into the kitchen, he will just get up and follow me. I think these are some of the differences between my kid and yours. The bit I'm worried about is him not pointing/ waving and his obsession with spinning everything. Please kindly provide me an update on your little one? Did he eventually started pointing etc and does he still pace back and forth?

Thank you

How is your child doing now

Shambhawi · 08/07/2025 05:00

Is your son started speaking words please reply