Question for any of you who were speech delayed

Post Reply New Topic

I have a 5 year old nonverbal autistic son. He had about 10 or so words when he was 18 or so months old, then they were gone. Anyways, I was curious if any one here could share with me if you had a speech delay, at what age did you actually start to form words again??

In my area where I live, there are a few nonverbal autistic boys who are just now starting to verbalize (one is doing echolalia) and they are both 6.

I hope that someday that my son will talk, but if he does not, I know there ARE other ways to communicate. He is having a hard time signing, he does more of leading me to what he wants. Like if he is thirsty, he will take me to the fridge. (I ask him if he wants a drink and he will then sign it)

Anyways, Im just curious..... thanks for any input!!

I spoke on time, one to two words in the first couple of years of my life; I never progressed past this until 5, when I uttered my first phrase due to an emotionally upsetting event; from here on I had pronoun difficulties and I spoke in third person. Speech therapy for a year and continued help from my mother helped my "funny" speech.

So I had basic receptive and expressive language for the first four years, i.e., "yes", "no", "food", "nanna", "mum", "dog", "cat", etcetera. Nothing else.

Then when I had an emotionally upsetting event at 5, it opened my mind up to the world; I first started talking at an age appropriate level then, albeit "funny".

I have palia now (obviously, I just did it unknowingly above); my speech caught up quickly with therapy.

Since he had words (his verbal component works after all), I'd say there's a very good chance he'll gain speech in time; he might catch up completely, or he might return to basic receptive and expressive language.

First, can you be more specific about the diagnosis? Is there anything besides AS that could give problems to speech?
I had speech therapy for three months and then I talked a lot. My mom tells me early intervention is key, but part of me wonders if these things would develope on their own in time.
All in all I think speech therapy is the way to go. I'm confident your son will speak in time.

I have an idea-but its really stupid.

with your young one present, stand casually facing a partner and 'bah' at them. They should 'bah' back. Keep doing it. Maybe the kid will chirp in.

I was non-verbal when I was a kid. I think mum said that my speech progressed normally to the standard kind of "yes", "no" etc.; simple and quick stuff and no formed sentences. Then I more or less stopped speaking unless I really really needed to (which can't be true completely because I had a friend as a kid, and I can remember talking to him at least twice, so maybe it was just not adults). Then, when I got into school I started to talk.

Mum seems to think it was something about being in school and needing to be able to communicate to survive, to fit in I guess, since I'd been in playschool before. To be honest, I can't remember not talking or start talking, so I'm afraid I can't help much!

And I did a very similar thing with reading as well - I didn't read at all until I was seven or eight, and then I "learnt" to read in a week, emerging at the end of the half term with famous five and the hobbit to read. That was probably something to do with not being able to read out lout though, since I /still/ hate reading out loud.

For both of these, I already knew how to do them, I just didn't. Thus why I was able to "learn" them so quickly. Perhaps your son just needs something to encourage him to talk?

my friend's son is non-verbal autistic, about five and a half.
he CAN say words. but it's really rare.
one time his nurse at school was bugging him because he needed to eat a cookie at snack (he's also severely diabetic) and he didn't want it. i'm guessing she must have gotten pretty desperate/relentless because he turned around and said 'shut up!' puzzling, really. you want to praise the speaking but not the words.
signing was very very hard for him. he could sign a few things - he used 'more' religiously at meals. PECS is working out very, very well. we're hoping he'll get good enough at it to use one of the electronic, speaking kinds. it would be wonderful to hear him 'speak' - but it will, of course, be on his terms.

EDIT: bear in mind, it's hard to use other cases as benchmarks. your son will progress when he progresses (this depends on what you consider progress, but you seem to have the right idea ).
EDIT2: most of the people here are diagnosed with Asperger's, which isn't usually marked by speech delay (though obviously there are always exceptions, and there are enough people on these forums where you'll find quite a few of these). if your son was diagnosed autistic, he may have a different presentation than many people here.

Our daughter is non-verbal and was, at 5 years of age, too. She had eye-aversion before she could move her head around... something like about 3-4 months old, too. She is verbal, a little, at 23 years of age. But mostly one or two words at a time. Like "hot bug" for a bee. Few words, broad non-specific applications. "Hot" means something that is sharp, hot, or otherwise causes pain. And she isn't interested in learning different words for each kind of pain.

We were told to consider signing and I absolutely recommend the idea. Even if your son doesn't learn much sign, you will be glad you learned it. You can use sign across a noisy commercial establishment, for example, to talk with your spouse without having to yell. And there are some really funny jokes you can make up with ASL that lose impact when translated to English. So I love it, to be honest.

We heard Dr. Fouts on the radio (Ellensberg, Washington -- and I think I saw someone here on WP that hails from there) talking about teaching signing to chimpanzees (his specialty and what he is famous for.) My wife liked him as a person from just listening and called and talked with him for a bit about good ideas on teaching signing to a profound autistic. He invited us up to the university there in Ellensberg and we went up on a weekend. He met us and then immediately got on his haunches and started working with Athena. I have to say I was shocked. She was not quite 5 years old at the time and didn't know any signs and had only recently realized that hand-guiding us around would sometimes get us to understand something specific she wanted.

(Not always. For example, one day she hand guided me into the kitchen and placed my hand onto the refrigerator door. But when I opened it, she threw herself onto the floor and just cried and cried and nothing I could seem to do would help. So I called out to Becky and asked her if she had recently made any food that Athena had liked and Becky said, "Yes," and then told me what it was. I think it was a fried thing, with potatoes and vegetables... but anyway, I immediately then understood why she had cried and cried. She knew enough about where the ingredients were and got me that far, but as soon as she had brought me that close it was only then that she realized there was no way to communicate the rest to me. The details were far too complex. It was X, and Y, and J, and Q, and ... well, you get the idea. She just freaked out and lay down crying because she had suddenly come to an impasse in our communication. Hand guiding gets you just so far and no further. As soon as I started picking out the _right_ ingredients from the fridge and she saw that I understood what she wanted, she was back up and watching me work and the crying stopped right then.)

Dr. Fouts had her signing in less than 5 minutes. And not just one symbol. A number of them. He never looked her in the eyes, though. He said that he not only had worked with chimps, but also with profoundly autistic children. Eye contact to a chimp, he explained, is the human equivalent of coming up to someone with balled up fists and a stance that looks ready for a fight. You just don't do it, unless you want to be clubbed hard. However, he said, you can go up to a chimp and grab what they are playing with right out of their hands if you don't look at their eyes when doing it. That's because you are just showing interest in the object, not threatening them through eye contact. In teaching Athena, he would give her a toy that she found interesting (he had a box of them and let her select one) and then when she was focused on it, he would simply grab it from her and then look just as interested at the object, never looking at her at all. She would try and reach out for it. He would then shape her hands into the sign for the toy ("Ball" let's say) and then allow her to have it back. Then, some seconds later, he'd repeat. Then force her hands into the right sign as he let her have it back. And it didn't take long for her to get the idea that if she formed something close to the sign, she could have the toy for bit.

Best wishes,
Jon

RampionRampage, you can have speech delay with Asperger's; Gillberg's criteria has it, and it's good IMO as those with autism who develop adequate speech early on after a delay of such are no different to those with Asperger's in reality.

I have a statistic from Professor Attwood that states only 18% of those with autism don't develop adequate speech with current therapy; it used to be at least half. I believe he is speaking of ABA therapy here.

What is Palia? I tried to google it, couldnt find out anything.

He did have words before, and now every so often he does say a word...but can never reproduce it if asked. But, when he does say a word and I recognise it, I say "I heard you! You said Mom!!" (or what ever word he did say). He gets so excited when that happens (and so do I!!). So I know he has the ability, which is good.

His speech pathologist he goes to 4x/week (co treat w/ OT) says he has apraxia also.

Thanks Danielismyname for your help!

His speech pathologist says he is also Apraxic. He has been in speech therapy since he was 2, along with OT and has had ABA for a year now, so he does have alot of help. He really has come so far, and I am a proud Momma!

Thanks for your input,

Nothing is too stupid to try! (of course unless it may hurt him in some way, which this wouldnt!) I will definatly try it and let you know what happens!
Thanks!

That is AMAZING. You already knew how to do them, just didnt. That is very interesting

Please dont think you are not helping much because you are helping!! Any one who responds to me is helping me in some way.

Wow, thanks so much for sharing part of your life with me. I know that no 2 people (autistic, AS or NT) are a the same, but just reading about anyones experiences help me understand what my son may (or may not) be going through.

Thanks so much for you input, Purplefluffychainsaw. BTW, I looked in your gallery, you are talented! I really liked the NAS poster #2, did you do that for the National Autism Society? I really like that one.

My son has done very similar things as you posted above when he is at therapy. He will yell out "NO!!" Clear as day! Very appropriate to say the least (cause they do 'push' him to communicate!)

I know that my son will progress at his own speed , I just like to hear about others experiences. It just makes me feel a little closer to understanding what he may be going thru.

Thanks sor your input!

RampionRampage,

Thank you so much for all your information. I am going to google about Dr. Fouts...very interesting about the chimps and eye contact, and how she was taught to sign.

Again everybody, thanks SO MUCH for everyones sharing. I love this board, everyone Ive come in contact with has been of great help to me.

oblekis,

It's actually "palalia", it is like echolalia, but you repeat what you say, rather than what you hear; I have the latter too (not frequent enough to pose difficulties), as well as pronoun misplacements, I still talk in third person now and again, but only when I'm comfortable with someone. (As an aside, I use misplaced pronouns and third person a lot when I speak to a very good friend of mine, she doesn't mind for she's understanding, which is a nice thing).

Personally, with gentle speech therapy, and caring encouragement, I believe he'll reach his full potential; whether it's enough to be then classed as Asperger's later on in life, or he returns to basic receptive/expressive language--it's who he is, and who he is is an unique individual.

Thanks again for your valuable input. And I totally agree, "Its who he is, and who he is is an unique individual' I couldnt have said it better myself!