Two year old. Doesn't speak...

Hello,

i know how frustrating this is. My now 11 year old was diagnosed with autism at 2 years old, he wasn't speaking then, but now has the speech and understanding of a 7-8 year oldI used visuals with him, and still do for things like feelings.

i have a 6 year old with autism, he is still non verbal. He uses visuals to communicate, but he has quite severe learning difficulties too so he even finds understanding these difficult! 

My youngest who is two, has also been referred for an ASD assessment by  health visitor. Now she can name objects ( on her terms) but she can't communicate using here words if that makes sense. For her I'm using visuals too. 

They all have speech therapy. I personally  kept being persistant and keep language very simple. So, instead of saying "do you want a drink?" I will hold up the visual and the cup of juice/water, kneel down next to them and just say "drink" once they have grasped simple things like that I moved onto simple sentences. 

This worked with my eldest, with my 6 year old he cannot say a word. I'm hoping it helps with my youngest. 

Also so check out your local sure start for a chatterbox course. It's ran by speech therapists, you take your child with you once a week over 6 weeks and they teach you how to help a toddler speak, even children with special needs :) it's for children aged 18 months to 30 months. 

I hope this helps! 

Hi , ive just joined the community yesterday , and im realy glad i did . My youngest granson is 3 and like Louayre's situation , when he wants anything he grabs your hand and takes you to it , hes been babbling for a while now and is just starting to sing his own noise to certain tunes .... chuggington ect .... its is a concern though FC2015 , but the signs are there 

My son is turning 4 in 3 weeks and doesn't talk. He has only just started babbling so the fact yours is babbling at age 2 is a good sign. The only way my son communicates is by taking our hand somewhere, screaming, crying Or high pitch screeching. He was assessed as is classed as having severe autism and severe learning difficulties and has just started a special needs nursery/school that is for people with severe learning difficulties. ppl still tell me it's to early to tell as they say sometimes they don't talk till age 7 so plenty of hope yet. My son also can't use visuals either so the fact yours is starting to use them is a good sign. 

All the best 

louise 

The "special speech people" are Speech and language therapists - often shortened to SALT or SLT in discussions on the forum. Try googling for it and you will find a lot of stuff.

Speech delay is quite common but I believe that it is very very rare for it to last very long. it's good to have Matt's perspective from having been on the receiving end of their assistance.

I wouldn't worry too much about it because I myself being someone with Autism I didn't talk in my early years I was that wouldn't complain just happy and sat there with my toys but my parents took me to these special speech people not sure what it was but they helped a lot of autistic or aspergers etc to talk and they got me talking not too much straight away but after a few meetings and a couple of months I was talking more and speaking in general is still a struggle and I think will always be and if that don't work sorry I have no clue has to what else could do the trick for you really