Regression of speech - how does it start?

[Ellie4]

My ds2 has began to stammer over the last few days and his pronounciation has not been as clear. We are now thinking the worst as ds1 may be asd or pragmatic disorder. I would be interested in hearing how a regression happens. Do children lose skills gradually or quickly and over what period of time. He had his 18mth jabs last week (prevenar and the DTPO one or whatever its called) so I'm pooing my pants. He hasn't had MMR yet. He is 21mths and up till now his speech has been too good IYSWIM.
It seems to come and go and sometimes he can say a word clearly then later the same day I will struggle to understand what he is saying and vice versa.

Ellie My understanding (and it is just one opinion as it is a fairly unknown area I believe) is that regression coinsides with the time when children begin to learn that words actually mean something.

They learn lots of lots by imitation, but as they become aware of the world and that words are a communication vehicle they can get overwhelmed and confused and words are no longer as enjoyable or rewarding as they were, so they shut them down and lose their confidence. This is only really the case if they have a communication disorder of some kind though.

The point I was making is they don't lose skills, but they never really had them robustly in the first place. A lot of children with asds have expressive language that is more advanced than their receptive. That means they can talk more than they can understand.

Ds2 (AS) said his first words at 10mths. They disappeared completely a few weeks later.

He pronounced the words far too perfectly for a 10mth old, and I strongly suspect that he was just echoing the sound they made rather than actually using them, IYSWIM. There was no 'mama' 'dada' build-up. He went straight to "mummy" and "daddy" etc.

When he did eventually start talking again he pronounced the words in a more age-appropriate way and this time he seemed to know what they meant.

So, as AngryWasp says, although he technically lost words ds2 never really had that skill in the first place.

I think the stammering thing can be fairly normal though. I know my dd (NT) went through a stage of doing that, despite having pretty good language skills.

I have also heard stammering might be normal.

My DD's speech regressed at 2.10, she went from having hundreds of words which were perfectly clear to slurring and sounding drunk and barely able to speak, it was very noticable.

It is something more with DD, but we were told by SALT that often children can struggle a bit when actually trying to use language properly and not just repeat, and that this was normal, so maybe that is what is going on with your DS?

DD2 saw SNHV this week as we were a little concerned about language regression. She said its not unusaul for some children to "lose" some words while learning new ones, and to stumble over complex language as they are learning.
DD2 has some other traits of ASD so she is being assessed and in the mean time she has made a referal to SALT.
I guess what I saying is its a normal stage of development but can be regression so if your concerned give your HV or SNHV a call
HTH