23 month old non-verbal and wondering about verbal apraxia?

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Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice/reassurance from parents with similar experiences.

My little boy is 23 months old and currently non verbal. He’s very social, affectionate, engaging, understands lots, uses eye contact well and communicates through signs/gestures. His other development seems on track.

What concerns me is that he has no consistent words, struggles to imitate sounds, and will occasionally make a sound once and then never do it again. He mostly says “uh” for everything. He also drools and often has an open mouth posture.

We’ve had hearing checked, seen an SLT, and are using AAC/signs and all the usual speech strategies consistently.

I keep being told to “wait and see,” but I’m starting to wonder about childhood apraxia of speech/verbal dyspraxia because of the inconsistency and lack of progress.

Did anyone else’s child present similarly at this age? What was the eventual outcome?

My son didn’t speak until after 2. I can’t remember exactly when it happened but I remember the nursery were concerned about it.

He didn’t have drooling.

It never worried me though. I knew he understood everything and he could say a word but then not say it again like you say.

Try to set your more anxiety based worries aside and listen to your gut perhaps? I don’t know if that’s helpful. But I really wasn’t worried; aside from the worries over people were putting on me.

Outcome at just turned 4 is he is now what people refer to as painfully shy. Also says huh a lot! But his vocabulary is incredible. Sentence structure and pronunciation great. But if he wasn’t comfortable with you then you wouldn’t know. So potentially some selective mutism from extreme shyness.

Is the SLT a regular appointment or a one-off? A good SLT will know conditions related to speech delay and signs to look out for.

If it helps my DD started talking the week she turned 2, she appears to be a gestalt learner. There’s so much to understand about speech delay and it’s really hard and not spoken about enough.

My grandson didn't speak until he was 4 and a half. Then he suddenly caught on and spoke as well as any other child. It's too early to worry.

There is a huge development at around 27 months , my second son was very similar to yours and all of a sudden he reached around 27 months and the words came thick and fast. Pronunciation is something we are working on now but I can see he has got the basics .

Thanks for sharing. Did he babble before he started talking. My son is used to babble a bit but hasn’t for months now so seems to be regressing

Thanks for sharing. Did he babble before he started talking. My son is used to babble a bit but hasn’t for months now so seems to be regressing

Thanks for sharing. Did he babble before he started talking. My son is used to babble a bit but hasn’t for months now so seems to be regressing

She’s not sure tbh. Has pretty much ruled out autism or general speech delay. Says it could be apraxia but will know more when he’s older. She’s not recommending regular speech yet but she’s taught us how to teach him AAC which is picture communication so we are working on that.

Thanks for sharing - Did she babble before she started talking. My son is used to babble a bit but hasn’t for months now so seems to be regressing

In my experience we had to try a few SLT’s before we found a good one. She’s absolutely amazing and comes once a fortnight and it makes a massive difference. They will be the biggest help once your child’s started to say a few words though I think.

DD never really babbled no, she communicated by crying and screaming and still does a lot of the time!

No none of my kids were big babblers. I have a 15 month old now also not a babbler. Will occasionally have a rant but it’s not often.

Doesn’t have a consistent first word yet. Has said mama and dada before but doesn’t now. Only consistent is ‘yuh’ which I think is yes.