Autism nearly 3 years. Non verbal?

[Lola2289]

My son is 3 in March so a little while yet! But completely non verbal. He isnt quiet babbles loads and a whole variety of sounds but words None doesnt even attempt to imitate any words. Anyone had experience with ASD and non verbal. Around this age did any go on to development good verbal communication. I know there is lots of other ways to communicate and we are working on them all but i still long for him to be able to speak!

Just trying to bump for you. My nephew had very delayed speech as well as very delayed walking.
He was later diagnosed with global development delay, autism and selective mutism.
He talks well now but can be quiet in unfamiliar situations and some of his speech is repetitive. He is a happy and is doing well at school.
I assume hearing has been tested? Go to your GP or health visitor if you are concerned. Do you have other reasons to suspect autism?

Does the babbling have communicative intent? Has he been referred you speech and language?

Best place to
Post is on the SN chat board, lots of posters there with a wide variety of experience.

My son has autism and he had zero words up until the week before his 5th birthday. That day he counted from 1-10 . He's 9 now and he's talks from the moment he wakes until the moment he goes to sleep . I don't take a single word for granted ever .
Before he could talk he communicated using PECS .

Is he in SALT or under any specialist care? My son didn’t start really talking till about 4.5. He did speak words before then but I couldn’t really talk to him properly till then. At 2 he was definitely still just babbling and making noise. I’m sure you’ve already had his ears checked but maybe a good idea to do again? And get onto support about it. Has he actually been diagnosed autistic? My son was so obviously autistic but we didn’t get a proper diagnosis until later.

I will say though like a pp once my son started that was it, never a quiet moment from the second his eyes open till they shut! He’s a real monologuer now.

My dogs was 4 and a half before he started speaking, but once he got the hang of it, there was no stopping him

Dgs

I remember worrying for a long time about my oldest boys speech, he didn’t talk a single world until he was over 5 years old. Everyone used to tell me all will be fine and he’ll start eventually, I never believed but they were right.
He’s 16 now, he certainly learnt to talk but he did end up diagnosed with ASD and ADD when he was 12 years old (far too late IMHO) he does obviously still have some social and communication difficulties, lacks a lot of confidence and has anxiety’s and certain sensory issues. But mostly, he’s not too dissimilar from his younger siblings.
He certainly knows his weaknesses and tends to focus more on his strengths to get through daily life.
But remember even if your DS does get diagnosed with ASD, so have many other children, those children turn into adults and still have it, yet they get by, often achieving very high, try not to worry and enjoy your DS whilst he is still little, he will surprise you one day

I am a Speech Pathologist (Australia). I sound get the ball rolling to see a SALT therapist and also a Paediatrician for a comprehensive developmental assessment. Go with your gut, people can we well meaning when they say " he'll talk when he's ready don't worry etc" however early intervention Is key

He has had some SALT input. I am not finding the service under the nhs great to be honest. And we have gone private which starts next month.no diagnosis yet but he peadiatrician is now on way with assessment process with SALT and portage sending reports. I know he will get a diagnosis as his mum i just know he has ASD. He is also at the minute so frustrated and lashes out at home and nursery we are really struggling with this at the min. His main communication is hand leading. His sleep his also HORRENDOUS! But my main worry has always been speech. And hearing that some Had no words at his age and went on to develop fluent speech gives me soooo much hope🙏

Also yes 2x hearing tests inconclusive because he refused to participate! So they are going to re try in 6 months time but i have no concerns with his hearing at all.

Is there an SEN team in your local authority? The nursery should be getting them involved to offer advice and support with his communication, behaviour etc. Check the local offer for your borough.
If he is pre verbal you can consider giving him another communication system - signing, using pictures. Things like a visual timetable to help him understand his day. Or look at PECS (you tube have some videos about it)

Have you looked at PECS for communication?

Sorry - crossed post.

I work with autistic children. I had a boy who was completely non verbal the first year I had him he was five I saw him the other day 2 years later and he shouted hello and was talking really well !! We use PECS books for communication so they can say what the want to help with frustration you could ask the speach therapists about this for your son to help him whilst his language is forming

I found it incredibly frustrating when people used to say of my DD at that age, "she'll get there when she's three". I have an education background and was adamant she needed early support, but felt waved away.

It's important to separate the ideas of non-verbal and non-speaking. Certainly my DD made a lot of noises at that age, but no words (and was therefore non-speaking, rather than non verbal). She is six now and the words don't always come easily still but we can have a short conversation with her, she can tell us about her day, and she and her neutotypical little sister play all sorts of imaginary games together. She's still an outlier in her class, but my goodness, the progress. For the last couple of years she has seen a speech therapist weekly at school (that we pay for) which of course has helped, but more crucially she really wants to talk.

You'll find lots of people in the Autism community whose children said very little as toddlers but are chatterboxes now! So, there is hope. It may well be worth reaching out to the National Autistic Society for advice and guidance.

Ds was non verbal until about four . Full vocabulary now though his use of words is different to typical use. Think lots of echolia and saying what he thinks the response needs to be rather than answering a question. He's 7 now and can articulate need verbally and is achieving academically.

Eldest was four before talking never stops talking now. Full vocabulary and generally uses language appropriately. Will usually answer questions with what he thinks you want to hear though. Once he started talk the became a much happier child as he could finally communicate his wants and needs.
Every child is different and progress can be very slow at times.

Thank you all for your responses. We will keep going. We just have down days. He is so frustrated and sometimes i really dont know what he wants and its hard. @Dillydollydingdong @Crunchingleaf @Mannymoomin curious to know did your DS have delayed understanding also. My DS has some understanding but delayed if i asked him to get me the ball for example he would have no idea what i was saying!

My eldest son was the same, had his own language until aged 3 when all of a sudden he started speaking very articulately. He was assessed at a child developmental clinic and had 1 session of speech therapy. This was a long time ago though, as he's nearly 30. Was diagnosed with asd aged 26. He's doing okay, just takes a bit longer to launch than nt adults, but he's independent and capable.

Hi OP. You say he makes a variety of sounds, although not words. Do any of them sound familiar to you (from TV / nursery rhymes, etc?)? Many autistic children are Gestalt processors (if you're on instagram, look at meaningfulspeech), apparently the biggest giveway is often they use a lot of intonation. My DD (3yo) is also what many would call 'non verbal' but for us it feels like the wrong characterisation because she does make a lot of sounds ("echolalia" is I think the scientific term). E.g. we will recognise a line of a song from Peppa pig - nobody else would recognise the words but we hear the intonation (because Peppa is very often on the TV or spotify...). SALT said we now need to do a bit of detective work to figure out what she's trying to tell us by these "Gestalts". E.g. she murmurs "twinkle twinkle little star" when she's tired (I think), or "Peppa George" when she's starting to get stressed. Also it was suggested that we can try to give her more Gestalts by using the exact same phrases at moments of our daily routine - apparently she's more likely to pick up these chunks that one word at a time.

Your DC may or may not be the same but I've just started learning about all of this so I wanted to share. Personally I find it quite positive to think that maybe she is trying to communicate with us through these noises, rather than them just being random. (And it also makes me feel better about her Peppa obsession because I think it's a key way that she may pick up more language!). We did try PECS for a bit, she didn't take to them at all. Current SALT said Gestalt processors don't usually take to them (but I've heard different things - may try again at some point - I bought a laminator especially 😂)

It's all tough, I know, but sounds like you have a good outlook 🤗

my son was nonverbal until 4 he was diagnosed ASD at 3.5, we had to do the hearing tests and like you the local SLT was pretty useless, and we went private, and they really helped. he is 9 now and can talk the hind legs off a donkey if it's a subject matter he loves or he's talking from his imagination about monsters, at other times he can be quiet still. His meltdowns and lashing out has improved greatly the past 2 years hes been in a special school - mainstream was not the right place for him - because his language has improved, and he can now articulate what's wrong or what he is unhappy with - a lot of the meltdowns and violence were him trying to communicate he wasn't happy about something but not being able to find the words. My son was also a hand leader and PECS didn't work for him, he seems to not do anything until he has it all sorted in his head then he will just start doing whatever it was like hes been doing it all along - talking, toileting, sleeping etc

@Lola2289 my DS did understand most of what was said to him. However, sometimes with non verbal kids they can have the understanding but don’t react in a way we would expect them too. So saying get the ball gets you nowhere because they have no interest in that task but saying where is the train might get a response because they love trains ( Or whatever your child loves). ASD kids are all massively different.

@Lola2289 he did have delayed understanding, but not to the extent as his speech.
But actually as he’s got older I’ve found that he can’t understand when he’s given too much info at once.
So his understanding is still impacted, but actually when info is cut down short and simple, 1 instruction instead of 2, then he knows what he needs to be doing