Sudden language loss in 2 yr old

[Tweedledee88]

Hello, after lots of reading these threads and finding them helpful my first post here. Feeling very bewildered at what has happened to my child and hoping someone may have useful experience/thoughts…

I have three kids. Oldest two are 5 and 4 and both diagnosed autistic. The oldest is verbal but very echolalic and middle child speaks a little to request things but is mostly non verbal.

My youngest is 28 months and has been developing in a completely NT way, very advanced speaker, chatty, cheeky, sociable with other adults and smiling at strangers for attention! She has been a real chatterbox from about the age of 15 months, vocab of 100s of words…

Over the weekend she literally woke up and from one day to the next her language has pretty much disappeared. She has a cold, v mild temperature over the weekend but otherwise nothing has changed - no major life events or shocks… in the last couple of days she will only say ‘no’ and occasionally ‘yes’ and otherwise just makes noises or gestures to ask for something or be picked up…

We have asked her to say things some times and while mostly ignoring this she has tried a few times and she gets stuck on the first syllable or makes a stuck sort of noise: “zhhuu zhhuu”. If she’s asked what something is she just says “um, um” like the bit of her brain that processes expressive language isn’t working at all.

She is pretty happy in herself, smiley and making little noises and doesn’t seem to be bothered but this is so dramatic I can’t believe it’s happening… terrified at this sudden loss of communication with her. I don’t know where to go - whether she might have had a minor stroke, or whether it’s some sudden autism regression… though her siblings are autistic this seems odd as she has been so interactive.

she also had chicken pox a few months ago (very mildly) so I’m wondering if this has something to do with it. If anyone has any experience of this - or has heard of anything like it, or any idea what action to take I would be very grateful.

I think you should see the GP. Because of the cold it worth looking at the signs of PANS and PANDAS.

Thanks. I saw those conditions but she doesn’t have any OCD type symptoms, tics or anything behavioural… just the language loss. But yes I will (attempt to!) get an appointment with GP. Thanks for your response.

@Tweedledee88 what was the outcome here?

Hello; thankfully she completely recovered. We spent a few days in hospital in which time she got MRI scans, ECH scans of her brain etc and nothing showed. Gradually if I sang a line of a song like twinkle twinkle she would add the last word. For a few days she would only say yes or no then gradually the words came back and for a few weeks a bit stuttering or sort of stammering on words then back to normal since. It was very strange. Both her father and I have autoimmune issues so I wondered whether it was some temporary autoimmune inflammatory response in her brain which flared up because of her cold. Hope you are not experiencing anything like this. Two of my kids are autistic and I have found things with language ebb and flow, things tend to pass eventually.

Hello no my son is still a small baby so too early. I'm glad to hear everything turned out well in the end. Must have been very worrying.