from the mouth of babes...

[tightrope]

my daughter has just turned 3 and her brother (ryan) is almost 5 and he has autism and is non verbal.

yesterday in the car she said

"i wish i had a ryan that talked"

god, me too.

I'm sorry, I can't think of anything to say but didn't want your post to go unanswered. Does he respond to physical rather than verbal? Could you focus on telling your dd that her hugs are as special as words for him? Sorry if that's trite, I don't have experience of special needs.

What a sweet thing for your dd to say.... I have a non-verbal dd (quad cp) who will answer yes or no, but life is just one long round of "20 questions", so I kind of know where you're at.
At our therapy clinic and school some kids on autistic spectrum are given communication devices - either pre-programmed or ones where you can add in your own phrases. Have you explored this? My dd has progressed through a variety of devices since she was 2 yrs old (she's 9), and I read research about them... some people say they can slow down language development, but others in particular speech therapists encourage use because the child is finally in control as they push the button to ask, agree, disagree or just repeat something. My dd gets a kick out of farmyard noises on hers, for example.
Your quote made me think of something my dd typed the other day, in reply to comments on facebook to a picture of her: "Thank you. Beautiful wentshoppingdaughter I am" - which is such a big deal - almost a sentence, and it almost makes sense - well to me anyway....

My dd1 tells her mates that her sister is more special than other kids cos she can sign as well as saying a few words :) I think it's hard for siblings to understand thing like ASD (we have no dx as yet for dd2) as it's not a physical thing that they can see