I've posted about this before. My daughter is about to turn two and she's not talking. Health visitor is aware and referral to speech therapy has been made. She's acutely shy and suspicious of other children, too but that's another thread! About six months ago, she had a growing list of words - perhaps ten. Now, she has only four words and they're less distinct now, if anything. She engages with me and would clearly like to be able to communicate. She'll mime and use a lot of inflection. And she'll try little pieces of words now and again. Sometimes she'll take a sound and use it every time she wants to communicate. At the moment she's using the back of her tongue, trying to get a 'tsk'/'k'/'t' sound. The health visitor said this is not what you'd expect at two, but also that it's too soon to think anything of it. She's known losing words to mean autism and she's known it to mean absolutely nothing.
I have this dread in my heart and it's her birthday tomorrow, for crying out loud. I just want her to have friends and be happy. I'm looking at the 'other mothers' kids' who are so ringletted, confident, engaging and articulate and my little one is so frustrated and uneasy. I can't bear to see her live a life of loneliness. I feel like she needs to start triggering more positive responses in other kids before she cements the idea of herself as aloof and hostile. And why can't she talk yet?
Would someone please help?