What is language delay like in high-functioning Autism?

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Specific examples please

I didn’t speak until I was 5.5 years old. My first “word” was a phrase.

I'm not sure that mine even counts as a delay. As a baby, I didn't vocalize at all, through senseless babbling or monosyllabic mimicking. My parents describe me as seeming "lost in [my] own world" during that period of development. I wouldn't engage with people when they tried to coax me to speak, and I didn't seem to pay attention to the noises and conversations people made around me. That continued until I was a year and a half old, when I suddenly began speaking coherently out of nowhere. Like Kraftie, I didn't have a first word. I began speaking in phrases right off.

The way my mother describes me as a toddler was that I could talk but didn't speak until I was almost 4. She also says that when I finally did start speaking, it was a full vocabulary all at once. What little I can remember as a toddler was a preference to making noises and gestures to communicate.

Language delay.
I may or may not had it. Likely not based on my past performance and several 1st/2nd hand accounts, despite the assessment scores and preferences.
All accounts, even my own, is inconsistent with this.

Verbal delay.
I dunno, until I was around 7-10: Spoken words back then are mostly ups and downs of pitch and tones with meaning than 'words'. Written words are more like strokes and shapes with spoken translations than words printed itself.
And I happened to have a strong nonverbal (visual/auditory/kinesthetic/etc) work around. That's how I found my learning style earlier.


Speech delay though. I definitely didn't had that.
I didn't speak late. I have no oral movement problems. And I wasn't 'aloof enough' to choose not to speak later.
Yet I'm sure that I had stronger preference of singing than speaking when I was younger.


Communication skill is more or less inconsistently screwed for various and layers of reasons.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

Mine was caused by ear infections and hearing loss. Supposedly "normal" kids catch up quickly after hearing again and I didn't catch up so I needed intervention and it took me years to outgrow. No one will never know if I still would have had a language delay without hearing loss. I don't know if that would have pushed me into the autism diagnoses as a child without hearing loss if I still had a language delay.

I would guess non interaction with peers and family members would apply in this Category

Thanks for the topic.

I merely echoed phrases.....including cuss words but didn't participate in conversation. Mom took me to County Mental Health Dept for an evaluation and therapy. Poor mom always on couch crying because I didn't appear to notice people or even her. Dad was out to sea. So yeah I got us banned several restaurants. My dad cussed like a sailor. Not good that I echoed his words. Plus I bit holes in all my plastic cups..hard plastic. So yeah I could talk but it wasn't really talking. I didn't do anymore than the select few phrases.

Learning to read? Didn't do well there. Once though I saw a benefit to me...I quickly surpassed others.