Did your non-verbal two-year-old eventually develop normal speech?

[Wonderinggg]

Has anyone had a child who was essentially non-verbal at 2 and also wasn’t much of a babbler as a baby, but still went on to develop normal speech?

My son is 2 and has no meaningful words yet. He understands a lot, follows instructions, points to communicate, has good eye contact, responds to his name, plays well with other children, shows joint attention, and a consultant paediatrician felt he does not show signs suggestive of autism.

One thing that worries me is that he wasn’t really doing the typical reciprocal babbling at 10–12 months. He would copy some sounds, but never seemed to go through a strong babbling stage.

We’re under speech and language therapy and have had a neurological assessment which was reassuring, but I’m finding it hard not to worry about his future speech.

I’d love to hear from parents whose children were late talkers, especially if they weren’t babbling much as babies. When did speech eventually emerge, and how are they doing now?

Thank you.

Yes, DD was non verbal at 2 and had SALT. Once she started talking she caught up pretty quick. In fact when she started school her teacher remarked to me how good her speech was for her age 😂

She's now a very articulate teen. She was diagnosed autistic at 11.

My DD was like this. Her speech really came on from about 2 and a half I think. She does have dyslexia and dyscalculia and according to the educational psychologist her processing is a bit slow. However she is nearly 15 now & although school has always been hard she is well supported & doing well. Her speech is absolutely fine & she is a lovely, well rounded girl. Lots of hobbies, nice friends. So I think there was a delay in her speech due to SEN but she’s doing well & although some things take her a bit longer she gets there in the end. She probably would have benefited from being in the year below at school so that would be my advice if you think there’s an issue (especially for summer born children.)

My daughter didn’t say anything until nearly 3 but like your son, communicated in other ways. She was always social, emotionally intelligent so we weren’t too worried but she did have speech and language therapy. When she did start speaking, only we could understand what she was saying but eventually it all clicked and she speaks beautifully now at age 8. She has struggled with phonics/english/writing at school so is likely dyslexic.

His dad’s super dyslexic and it took him a very long time to learn the order of his name letters. Still gets them mixed up sometimes.

He is very spatially oriented when it comes to shapes so it’s not a processing problem across the board. Ie. He can do very advanced lego sets by himself.

DS was pretty non verbal until 3 and only had a big spurt of talking at 3 and a half. He is now almost 5 and although not all sounds are clear he never shuts up. His issue was glue ear and adenoids but I do wonder if he is ND (but then have my suspicions about myself and DH so maybe it's genetic!).

Yep sounds like my DS. Also very good at lego!

I am not worried about it. DP runs a successful architecture practice and can’t write a birthday card correctly 😂

With AI now he doesn’t even need a secretary anymore, but he does occasionally outsmart the spell checker but it’s quite funny when he does.

Yes. He started taking at about 3.5 but was unclear until 4.5 and in speech therapy until 7. He is autistic, ADHD and dyslexic.

If your child is showing good understanding and social communication e.g. smiles, pointing, waving and playing with others (all of which mine didn't do) the likelihood is it's a delay and they will catch up.

I have taught lots of non verbal high needs autistic kids. Some talk, some don't. It's hard to predict.

My friend didn’t speak until he was three. He went on to study maths at Oxford, has a PhD and has written three plays.

Have you posted about your dc before?

My oldest is 7 and still doesn’t speak. He can say 2/3 words clearly enough that it’s understandable. School have been brilliant but SALT is extremely difficult to access.

Yes, non verbal at 2. Words started coming at 2.5. SLT til almost 5, now 7 and completely normal speech and vocabulary.

I hear you!

my ds can barely write a sentence - yet he can write the complex code on computers and is a software developer!

In fact due to this and his inability to write what he wants from the supermarket in anyway can figure out what to buy he decided one afternoon when he was bored to make an app he could write it on for me to use 😂

Child in our family didn't say a single word until 2.5. Then one morning they said "please can I have a banana?" and appeared bemused at the huge excitement this caused. From then on they just chatted away as if there had never been an issue, and were actually quite advanced with their speech for their age. Went on to be a straight A student and highly successful. They are a complete perfectionist, the family theory is that they weren't prepared to talk until they knew they could do it properly.

My nephew was referred to SALT, very very limited speech at 2. Now just turned 4 and he’s really improved. Nursery has a huge help I believe

Yes he started taking at 3 years and 2 weeks! Just decided to start and now at 8 never stops lol x

My cousin's son didn't talk at all until he was three. Now works as a manager in a customer facing role, talking perfectly well.

Did he start with a full sentence? That's what my cousin's son did. Said nothing at all and then one day, aged three, said, 'Please can I have some orange juice?'

My brother was a late talker, and mostly made up words to begin with when he did start. Bit of soeecch therapy at around 4 but not for long. No long term problems.
My own son was late, maybe a handful of words at 2, and definitely not a babbler. Was confidently telling me "don't be ridiculous" at 3.

I didn’t speak until I was 2.5 (apart from saying “no”; apparently I said this a lot). I ended up with an English lit degree from Cambridge, an MA in English from Kings, and am now a director of comms for a public body. It definitely didn’t hold me back 😁

For the most part he had very few words before two and it was a long LONG slow road to get him talking he was discharged from mainstream SALT when he went to a special needs secondary school he still gets support but its not as intense as it once was he is now being taught sign language i was told to teach him sign language at age two but I resisted I was sure he could learn to speak and I was right but they fought me on it insisting it was best for him to sign rather than speak they said he never would speak meaningfully I guess they were wrong 😁

Oh yes: and as with other posters’ kids - apparently I went for full sentences straight off the bat. My mum claims one of the first things I said was “the leaves are falling off the trees, so it must be autumn”

Yes all 3 of my boys, not my 2 girls though. Is he by any chance very physical ? There is a theory that small children kind of focus on one or the other . When my boys finally ‘cracked the seal’ as it were , they had a really good vocabulary and were talking in sentences really quickly , but probably not talking or toilet trained till about 3. One of them was walking at 9 months though and all 3 very active ( feral)
he will be taking it all in even if he’s not actually using it yet . He’s still very young .

My dc were all totally non-verbal when they were 2. All now very chatty. I was the same according to my mother.

My nephew was similar - gestures and understanding but no speech at 2. He’s now 8 and no diagnoses bar dyslexia, which he does struggle with, but his speech and everything else is fine.