My non verbal DS8 just 'spoke'.

[Bubbletrain]

My non verbal DS8 fell asleep on the sofa at 5pm after a bad night last night and a very busy day. When DH woke DS he went to the bottom of the stairs, I said let's go out and play, thinking we could stretch him out to a more reasonable bedtime and DS responded with 'beh' multiple times. Right before this my DD11 said that he had said 'puh' for push and 'bah' for ball today and I responded with 'Oh wow, that's exciting!' but totally brushed it off and then low and behold he comes out with 'beh' when he wanted to go to bed.

DS had 8-10 word that he said regularly e.g. teddy, mummy, daddy, more, juice etc before he experienced a severe, sudden regression at 16m old. I always held out hope he would talk again but in more recent years accepted that he most likely wont and came to peace with that.

I'm not feeling the joy and elation that I thought I'd feel in this moment. I'm doubting he spoke, not wanting to be excited and get my hopes up, I want to tell family members but dont want to make a fuss if it wasn't really an attempt at speech.

Anyway, this is my first time posting. I came to ask anyone who has had an older child with ASD and GDD that has developed some speech, no matter how small, how did it begin and progress?

Following along OP as always on the lookout for these happy stories.
I know what you mean re not wanting to get your hopes up too ♥️

My Ds accumulates new words and applies them in context even now at 17.

children grow, their brains grow and develop all the time and new research shows that brain and synapses don’t stop forming new connections for much longer then previously thought.

so don’t give up hope, I understand the reluctance to get excited but keep doing what you’re doing. Dont put pressure on yourself to try anything brand new , he’s growing and even our children with severe disabilities grow and change.

My old paediatriac consultant told me that in disabilities not all the brain is affected, parts yes, but some are just as they should be so the feelings and thoughts that come with older children may still apply to your child too, parts are exactly as a 17 year old should be. And that made more sense to me.

I taught lots of autistic non verbal children over the years and I know how important it is to parents in particular that they develop speech.
At one time I had a poster on my classroom door that said Not being able to speak is not the same as not having anything to say. ( I’m sure you know that)

Typically autistic children often make more progress between the ages of 8 to 12 rather than 0 to 5.
I have taught children who had some speech but not functional language skills and others who did not speak but were good at making their needs known.

There used to be a phrase bandied around that if spoken speech hadn’t developed before age 6 it probably wouldn’t.
I have taught children who started to use some words after using PECs to communicate. One child I remember would tap on her hand if making a request as if she was visualising a sentence strip.

It’s good that you are encouraged by it. What communication system does he use? Have you spoken to school staff or SALT? They may offer more strategies. Will he mimic car noises or animal sounds.
Some children sing before they speak remembering songs at school used for routines and transition. Our music teacher used to put music to some children’s books and one boy learned to remember the stories using this method.
I worked with another child who started to speak aged 8 after using a Pro Loquo to go system.

Age 9 ds said 'mummy'. He had zero words up u till then. Up until age 13 we had the odd new word that would come and go. The last 2 years (he's 15) he's putting together 'I want' sentences with the growing vocabulary he has developed over the last 2 years. It's still very limited but has made a huge difference to him and us. He has significant pronunciation problems but we know what he's saying. He still uses multiple communication aids that support the speech he does have. His new thing is saying 'hi' to everyone, it's lovely to hear him. We certainly never thought he get to this point, just shows you never know.