Putting words together - will it happen?

[zen1]

DS3 is now 2.7, no diagnosis but many ASD traits and hypermobility. His speech has been improving recently in terms of the number of single words he can say (tbh I've lost count but it must be over 100), but he is not really putting words together, apart from stock phrases he has learnt as 2 words like 'all gone', 'clean teeth', 'wet-wipe'. Has has started to say "hello mummy" or "hello ", but apart from that not putting words together. I've been reading the Hannen books and everything seems to say that when a child has acquired 50 words they usually begin to combine but this isn't really happening. Just wondering if any one else's DC was like this but did eventually start combing? Thanks

Yes, I have heard that sand timers can be very effective. The thing is I don't know whether my DS would understand what they were for. How would I explain it to him? At the moment, if I say "we're going out in a minute" all he understands is that he will have to stop doing what he is enjoying. I find it difficult to find easy ways to explain things, iyswim...

we called it (and signed it as) the wait wait sand, and used it first for things he didn't want to do, (saying at the table when he had finished) the watching the sand go thru and knowing he could get up when it was done, worked for him and then we went from there, using it for things we were working on, (keeping him on adult lead task) then moved on to stopping things he liked, after he got the idea...

That's really interested, as I hadn't realised we graduated it like that until I explained it above,

Ok, well I'm willing to give anything a go :) I know he understands 'wait', so I'll start showing him a timer and saying 'wait' to see if he gets the message. Thanks