Non verbal 20 month old

[Ploddingg]

Please help. My 20 month old son is completely non verbal apart from pointing , gestures / sign and some babbling….

He’s been like this since about 13 months old. He’s progressed in other areas just not his speech. We’re so worried about him and we spend so much time singing to him, reading, playing, trying out all the techniques speech therapists use…. (Without putting pressure on) as a family, we are playful and loving and very patient. But it’s getting worrying now. He is due to start speech therapy in a week or so but I’m just so worried as usually kids don’t speak if the have other communication/ imitation issues which he doesn’t have. He’s always copying us and even enjoys imaginary play! Or they have one or two words at least. He has zero.
I just can’t work it out as he clearly wants to talk as he move his mouth but no sound comes out…
He’s also started banging his head on wooden surfaces when he’s frustrated which I think is due the language delay. We have taught him signs and he uses them mostly!

To clarify he's pointing and gesturing to make his needs known? Is his receptive language good? Mine was similar. She didn't say many individual words but came out in full sentences by 22 months. You could have an actual conversation with her and not much got past her by the time she was 2.5. She had to have a bit of speech therapy at age 3-3.5 as speech was still very unclear but now at age 7 she's one of the best in the class at English and Maths. She's always been an incredible reader.

It's great that he's getting speech therapy and it sounds like you're doing what you can to support him. Easier said than done but don't get so stressed that this steals these precious early years. You won't get them back. Nothing you've said sounds hugely concerning.

He does gesture and point to get his needs met. Than you for the reassuring words. We’ll try not to worry xx

Hi OP.
my son started nursery at 2 and the only words he could say was 1,2,3 and that was it. We were worried how he would communicate his needs etc, how would he make friends, or if he was non verbal. After about a month in nursery he started singing nursery rhymes you couldn’t make out every word only some, I’d say by 2.5y he was a few words but would either miss out the first or last letter or each word for example lion was li so we knew what he meant but no one else did. By 3 he had lots of single words that he could clearly pronounce and then the biggest shift came between 3-4 years, he would pick up random words, put sentences together, repeat everything we say to him etc. he still definitely has a speech delay and we’re also going down the asd diagnosis path however I wish I could go back in time and tell myself to stop worrying and enjoy my little 2 year old because I’d do anything to have him back for a day and give him a squeeze.
a speech therapist once said to me if they make an attempt to communicate it’s likely he will talk, if he makes no attempt at all then he could be non verbal. But the fact your child does try and communicate is a positive sign!

Just wondering how you’ve got in with the SaLT OP? And has your LO had a hearing test yet to rule out Glue Ear?