for those with speech delays...

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My kiddo was just evaluated a couple of months ago by his speech therapist. She claims he's at around a 3 1/2 yr. old level (he's 6 1/2), although, I do have to say that while she was evaluating him, it was rather funny to see how many things I KNOW he can say and understands and how much he just literally would ignore her...Anyway, I'm good with that since a year ago they claimed he was at around 1 1/2 yr. old level...

With that said, did any of you have such a huge delay in speech and if so, at what age did you start speaking at the age appropriate level, if ever?

Out of all of my concerns for him, really, my biggest is his speech. Someone mentioned how when they were terrified they started talking (at a hospital or something) and my kiddo has done that too...Also, the other day at the mall we had what I thought to be rather simple, but real converstation of..."wait a minute mom...look, a small pirate ship...can you buy this one mom?" (we went to that store to look for a small pirate ship, after he saw a bigger one somewhere else and I told him we should find a smaller one instead)

Thanks!

My son went from being way behind at four, to 2 years ahead of his age at 6. (expressive and impressive language tests).
He wasn't intensively trained in this period, but started at a kindergarten where they used TEACCH with visual pictograms and schedules. Another child in the group had no language at all, but is now speaking just fine.

Today, aged 9, he has problems saying some words, but has the phrases and vocabulary of a little old man .

When he was IQ tested last year he STILL has huge problems with the verbal test where you have to define words. He scored like a 5 year old . This surprized me a lot, because other aspects of his language seem great. It also frustrated him a lot, as he knew what all the words meant, but couldn't figure out how to rephrase them.

My theory is that he is a completely visual thinker, and language will always be a second language to him.

it's kinda hard to tell...I think I was normal, but I spent a lot of time with my foot in my mouth...

I had a severe speech delay in my early childhood. I said single words but they were more at a level of a one year old. I started talking a lot when I was five but I was very hard to understand. I didn't start talking correctly till I was six. I still say words wrong but no one notices it because I have an accent. They just think I am from somewhere else. People say words differently everywhere. But I don't know if my language was still below the age level when I was speaking.

I was communicating with a typewriter by the age 3. I was reading (words and phrases, not just the pictures) and making up my own stories to go with the pictures. I would answer questions with typed phrases, not just single words. However, I did not speak/talk beyond the occassional grunt, "Yes," or "No" until about half way through Kindergarten. I just couldn't be bothered using such an unefficient and confusing method of communicating. Once I made the decision to use verbal communication, I started doing so.

Despite my precociousness in communicating and my obvious ability to communicate intelligently, I am labeled as having been "delayed." However, once I did begin to talk, nobody has ever figured out how to shut me up, since.

Pops

I didn't start talking much until around 5 years young. I don't think I have ever been at the right level for speech because my vocabulary sucks and probably is at a 1 year old level.

This is something interesting and I've been wondering something like this myself. I am really wondering, especially with some or many nonverbal autistics if they can think words in their head, and honestly believe they are talking, when in fact they are not.
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I'm going to pull this example out of my mind: I was 4 years old, sleeping in a white crib. I hated the bar thingy that I had to keep putting my leg over in order to get out. Otherwise I liked my crib. I think I wished that some of the posts were gone so I could just slip in and out.

Anyways I would shake the bars deliberately with the intention of either getting my parents or to break it down.

One day I got my wish. Parents rushed in, had a heated discussion. I heard something about them wanting to get a "new bed"

I said, "I don't want a new bed! I like it this way!" Not only that but I was trying to crawl onto the fallen mattress and show my parents, "See? See? Easier!" I may have slurred over the last word, but I remember having some word to that effect to show them how happy I was to have my crib the way I want it; with the bars but now a gap that I could just crawl in and out without having to climb.

Only when I ask my parents about the moment and a few others they say I didn't say a thing. I guess my speech never left my mind even though I thought it did.

Interestingly I still chatter to myself in my head, occasionally whispering along with what I am saying and verbalizing parts of my speech to myself. I tend to remember my mental speeches almost as if I was talking, only a deeper, and more distant, softer version of my natural voice.
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I'd like to also note there is a difference between how well I can speak in my head and type vs. try to speak verbally aloud. I think part of it is the speech in my head is rather detailed and to try to put it in a few words in casual conversation and speak it fast, drags me down a bit.

But overall people who've tested me seem to note I am average to above average with areas of speech and word comprehension. Other areas I may have tested lower. (I think but I'd like to take a look at my official records before I make a clear conclusion)

That is so me! My parents often made such comments like that. They couldn't figure out how to "turn me off".

It's weird because he can pronounce words correctly once he hears them/learns them...but it seems he just won't talk sometimes...and sometimes, I think he really just doesn't understand what I'm saying. He does have echolalia, so maybe that makes it a bit harder? I think that's why it took so long for the diagnosis...people kept telling us, "look, he can talk...", but really, he was just repeating what he heard.

He has very good hearing now, after years of ear infections, etc...and has perfect pitch...so it's actually kind of funny because he learned the word SHARK through a movie and still says it with an "english" accent...

I don't know if part of his delay is also the fact that he hears two languages constantly...He does know much more english than spanish, but he does understand many things in spanish and pronounces them correctly as well...

Anyway, thanks for the info...this is the one thing that really worries me about him...Not so much that he has an excellent vocabulary, but it's been hard when we don't know if he's sick or not, or like when he was in school and became terrified of it from one day to the other and he couldn't tell us why...it's heartbreaking...

Hopefully with our move, he'll hear much more english and that will help him as well.

I think I used to do the repeat speech part. I don't know why, but I still find myself repeating things I "say" in my head sometimes. Sometimes I repeat the same thing I said over to someone, because to me it feels like I am saying it the first time.

There's also the possibility that if he is a visual thinker perhaps he saw something on TV or somewhere and is trying to repeat the words along with it because the visual image is what he is seeing in his mind. It could be his attempt to verbalize. Sometimes I took words in context and whatever I was thinking I assumed the word being mentioned was what I was thinking about or observing at the time. For instance when I was 4 and 5 we lived in CO springs. The word "Denver" came up between my parents a lot. I attached my own meanings for that word. Perhaps one I tried to ask my parents, "What's a Denver?" but their answer got lost. It didn't sink in my head. Years later I can return to that question, that visual moment of my memory and be like, "Oh yeah now I know what a Denver is (and where if I went on google maps or something). No wonder why my parents talked about it often.

There's a lot I don't know and a lot I want to learn. I know with me, thoughts bounce around a lot in my head. Very seldom do I notice a thought just go through once in my mind without me repeating it in either a mental voice or a verbal voice. It seems to help "set" that thought in my head. If I don't get a chance to repeat over, then I may forget.