What age did your non verbal child start talking?

[Thankgoodnessforcheerios]

I know every child is different but I am beginning to wonder if its ever going to happen. My DS is 3. He is recently diagnosed with ASD. He makes lots of noises and when I ask him a question like what is your name he will open his mouth as if to say something but then can't. He is communicating brilliantly with PECS but I just want to hear his little voice :(

My 5 yr old isnt verbal.. But I am not loosing hope yet. I have heard of kids gaining minimal speech as late as 8 and 10... We do get a few prompted words here and there

My 4.5 only had three words but over the last four weeks he is trying to speak a lot more - he said hat this morning! We started off with PECS and let him speak at his own pace as he seemed to become anxious if we encouraged him to speak - we would ask DS a question and he would open his mouth to reply and then clam up - so we stopped and he has started saying a few words spontaneously.

Thanks for the replies. I won't give up hope. He can spell his name frontwards, backwards and upside down! I just wish he could talk. I know all the words are inside there somewhere as his understanding is very good but he just laughs when I ask him to say something. It's just frustrating to watch him flick through his pecs book looking for something so he can communicate with me and it isn't there yet.

Have you tried Makaton?

DS actually started to talk when
He was 2 and a half, but this was a very sloooooooow development and at 4 his saying his 10 words.

DS has his own made-up sign language that he uses to mainly communicate with me. Being a bit "dumb" I should say at the time. When he used his gestures, I
Didn't say the word or used the same action. I just did what he asked. When I started doing that more, he became more verbal.

So I thought 'light bulb moment' Makaton would be really useful and he uses the words with them.

I've never tried PECS, but you can try Makaton.

Also DS uses a lot of exclamatory words. i.e. "Uh-oooooh", "woooops", "yuuuck" "gasp" etc. I think you should incorporate these into your play and daily routine. For example, if you see something yucky on the floor, point to it (if your child can follow a point) or show your child the yucky thing and say "eeeeew, yuk". When your pulling something do a strained voice.

I got these ideas from the www.teachmetotalk.com site, she is sooooo good. I recommend you look at this site.

My son was nearly four when he first said "mama". He's quite chatty now (9) but because he struggles so badly with phonological awareness and processing he is still school entry level (reception) reading/writing etc

Adrianna, we use makaton at home and have been to sing and sign classes. His sister picked up signing really well however he seems to have problems with co ordination and would get frustrated trying to make the signs. He chooses not to now however I do keep encouraging him and we use it on a daily basis anyway seeing as his sister has picked it up and enjoys it.

I will have a look at that website, thanks

BigBird that's great that your DS is quite chatty now, its hard to imagine getting to that point.

Yes, he is fairly talkative but it does require patience and understanding as a listener, it's tempting to rush him as he sometimes struggles to remember what he's trying to say or what things are called. His grammar is very immature and he gets tenses muddled (weeks/months minutes are all the same to him) still a long way to go. He has 1:1 speech and lang once a week which teachers then reinforce. He also has a scribe at school to try and get him to express himself as his literacy is so bad. My main focus is to keep trying to boost his confidence as it would be so easy for him to not try and clam up.

My eldest was about 7 when he started to talk, and he talked like a toddler - not proper sentences, mispronunciations, etc. Before that, he made a lot of noise but didn't talk.

He is 15 now and he talks very well. People would have to talk to him for some time before they possibly wondered if there was an issue, as long as he doesn't start to ask his odd questions or make noises. Some people think english isn't his first language.

He said to me the other day "I feel like my vocabulary is disintegrating"

I said anyone who can say I feel like my vocabulary is disintegrating has got nothing to worry about

my youngest has always been able to speak, but was exclusively echolalic (delayed echolalia) for years and years. He is 14 now and no longer really uses the echolalia but he never chats to anyone. Nobody has ever sat with him and had a natter. He makes announcements and statements, issues instructions and will ask questions but then not listen to the answer! He still has visual timetables and uses PECS at school.

@Thankgoodnessforcheerios i am on the boat as you were, can you please update me about your dc progress, thanks in advance.

Follow up posts plz....I desperately want to know if he learned to talk over the years?? The post is almost 10 years old now