Will my autistic child ever speak more?

[Shootingstar2289]

My son is nearly 4 and is awaiting an autism diagnosis. Up until age 3.5, he only said a few words - now he says many single words (not always clearly though) and puts the odd sentence together such as 'where are you?' or 'go see granny'. Which is a BIG improvement compared to being completely non verbal not too long ago.

The speech therapy in my area is limited. One speech therapist so he's only seen her a few times. He goes to pre school and the staff are fab.

He's becoming increasingly frustrated as he's getting older.

Will he ever talk more? Or will be stay this way?

I love him regardless but he's getting so upset that it makes me sad :(

I felt pretty low at your stage too, as DS2 was pretty much non-verbal. It's hard not to worry about it

He's 9 in a couple of weeks and has recently begun to talk and never shuts up!

No-one knows, which could sound depressing. But is really encouraging, because even if a specialist is negative, they don't know it's just their best guess/opinion.

Talk to him lots. Have you got signs he can use? Does the nursery have help from the LA? Is there anything they or a speech therapist can suggest you do at home?

My ds will be 15 soon and he only says a couple of words, his understanding is really good, he does make his needs know and will say the odd single word not always clear but other times really clearly.
When he was about 4 I asked his pedeatrician if he would ever talk and she said if he wasn't talking by the time he was 8 the chances are that he never will.
To be honest I'm so use to him not talking that It would be a bit of a shock if he did, mind you I've not given up hope.

DD (autism and a very severe speech and language delay/disorder) spoke much less at 3.5.
we had only single words (mainly nouns). certainly no questions (they came at 5-6).

she is 7, still severely delayed but she is talking in sentences. asking questions (what/why/where...).she can tell us roughly what she did at school, tell us her needs and wants.
Hth

Six months ago DS (4.5) only said yes and no. Now he is almost talking in sentences although his speech is not clear to those who don't know him. So it can happen - it seemed that DS decided that he was going to talk one day. We can't really take any credit for it but the only thing we found helped DS is not to push him as it makes him anxious and he was then likely to refuse to even try to speak.

Wow ourvye Ive kind of given up DD is 5 non-verbal (ASD severe LD. but in my heart its my secret most most wished for thing that she would one day talk - even just a little bit.

He discovered Alphablocks, Firsttimer!

He started, early last year, using wooden letters to make the words, having memorised entire episodes and has sort of grown from there. It went on the back burner for a while, but a few months ago he went back to his fanatical spelling, only he was saying the sounds as he spelled out the words. He's moved on to noticing words on packets and shops and so on and has simultaneously become increasingly clear with the sounds he makes. He said "socks" perfectly, the other night when DH was trying to hurry him to bed. He takes his jammie top off and puts odd socks on before he gets into bed and hadn't done that, yet! He's funny when he's scrounging for food, too. He spells out a random word off the packet. He'll say "B. U. N. bun" when he wants a hot cross bun for example.

And he's learnt to search iPlayer for programs he wants to watch, by typing in the names.

Those 5 minute cartoons have opened a lot of doors for him!

I wouldn't give up yet. Am just now giving up on DD a bit at 8.5. She has phases of saying some words but it just isn't taking off.

She had severe regression though so I think is less likely she will speak.

I would investigate other methods in meantime..PECS/signing etc. They can encourage speech and also mean less frustration.

Thank you all for the responses. He does signs and pecs at pre school mainly. At home, he will say 'drink please' 'need wee wee' so we don't use it as much at home. At least using single words is an improvement since last year when be said nothing at all! :)

My ds says nothing. He's three and has copied the odd word. I'd give anything to hear him talk

Thank you for starting this thread. I've been reading many similar on all sorts of parenting sites to try and gauge whether my ds3 (3yo in a couple of weeks) will ever talk. He used to say "bye" very clearly but rarely does so anymore. Other than that, he uses no words whatsoever, just occasional babbling noises. The paediatrician has referred us for SALT assessment (2 month wait, joy) and various tests for an unspecified list of potential underlying conditions.

My ds1 (10yo) is also undergoing assessment for ASD, and ds2 (8yo) has dyspraxia, so I'm not new to the world of SN, but have never experienced a non-verbal child before so this side of things is really daunting. I started looking into Makaton classes round here but it's prohibitively expensive. I'm not really sure what else to do other than wait the 2 months to see the speech therapist and take it from there.

I really get where you are coming from! When DS got diagnosed, the one thing I said to myself was that if he could end up talking - actually be able to hold proper conversations with me - then I wouldn't mind about anything else.

I read a study the other day where they studied the language progress of ASD 4 year olds who had no or practically no speech (i.e. had more severe language delays than your DS at his age!). About 50% went on to have fluent speech, about 25% went on to have "phrase speech" and the remainder remained non-verbal. Apparently there was often a real surge in language in many children around the 6-7 years mark.

Although it is impossible to say, as your DS has many single words and is beginning to string them together (brilliant!) I would be hopeful if I were you.

Where are you, Smite? Cerebra run Makaton classes, which can sometimes be free.