late talkers?

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if you (or your child) were a late talker when did you start speaking?

I am te mother of a 3.5 year old who is not yet speaking. He babbles frequently, and has said mama, dada, no, ya but i, not sure hes usinthem with meaning, more than hes coincidentally managed to babble something that resembles a word. Other than not speaking hes quite thpical, hes responsive and social, has great eye contact (if any if that matters)

is there anything i can do that will help him? he is in therapy but its only a few hours a week, it doesnt seem to be making a difference yet (been at it just under 2 months)

im starting to worry he will never be able to speak fluently, so any shared experiences would be very helpful

I didn't speak until I was 5.5 years old. However, within about six months, I was able to speak like a "normal" six year old in terms of grammar and syntax. I didn't have something like "apraxia of speech." It's possible that I just didn't have the incentive to speak.

If he's "normal" in all other ways, I would continue with the early intervention. I would also look into such things as "apraxia of speech." Apraxia of speech is when a person have relatively subtle problems in "motor planning," interfering to varying degrees with the production of speech.

How does he do in tests dealing with "speech comprehension," versus "verbal expression?" If his comprehension is good, he probably doesn't have a "language disorder." He might have a "speech disorder."

thank you for your post, that gives me tremendous amounts of hope. I will look imto aparaxia and discuss that possiblility with his therapist.

receptively i feel like he does understand much of what i say, if i call his name and ask him to come here he does, when i tell him no or stop he listens, he understands parts of our routine, like bed time, bath time, time to go, and simple comands like sit down. I feel like he probably understands more than he lets on, as hes extremely stubborn. I wouldnt say hes demonstrated that hes typicalky receptive though, but again im not sure if hes not understanding or just unmotivated to listen/talk

I didn't start talking until I was four. I had a history of ear infections and hearing loss and had tubes put in. But I was still left language delayed and had a language impairment. My mother did her own speech therapy with me. She did use it in a ABA way by giving me M&Ms for making a sound during therapy. She also did flashcards with me and try and have me say the words. I didn't start to speak a lot until I was six but I was still language delayed.

Greetings. I didn't start talking until I was 2 years-old. But I pretty much immediately started to speak like a "normal" 2 year-old. My siblings started talking at the "normal" talking time. My parents took me to speech therapy when I was younger. For me, I would point at something if I wanted it and just make random noises that had no meaning. My grandma believed I "talked" (it wasn't talking) like that because I watched too much Teletubbies (a TV show, but the characters made random noises too).

I have a few suggestions. My first is to talk as much as to the child as you can. Describe what you are doing. My parents would sing something about climbing stairs to me as we walked up and down stairs. I liked music a lot so singing made me happier. Maybe your kid likes music? My second suggestion is to "play dumb" if he wants something. I'm not sure if this is a problem for your kid, but it was for me. I would point at something and make noises. My parents would know what I want but would pick up something near them (if it was an object) and ask if I wanted it and keep repeating it a few times until I got a response. I didn't have any words though, but your child does, so this suggestion may be too basic for you. If it was an activity like at a park, pretend to choose something the kid doesn't want to do. Speech therapy will help for sure. Maybe play a word type of game with the kid that involves pictures and something saying the word? Maybe they do this at speech therapy, I'm not sure (I had it when I was one and a half so I don't remember). I am just thinking about the farm animal toy where they push the handle to make it spin and it lands on an animal and talks to the kid ("the cow goes moo" as an example).

Anyways, hope this helps

I was about 3 years old when I started talking. Sometime after that, I took speech lessons.

I started writing before I could speak. I started writing at age three and was 7 when I started to speak. In first grade I whistled to get attention and wrote down my thoughts. Up until then my family thought I was mute.

thank you all so much formyour stories and suggestions. I just feel so hopeless that he will ever speak, i know it should t matter if hes non verbal, that he can still be sucessful but i just want so badly for him to speak. He wont copy me, or comply unless its what he wants to do. I have been trying to get him to copy actions in hopes that after that he will be able to copy sounds and words but he wants no part of that. Even when i make him do the actions and praise him he still just cries and tries to run away.

ive evn tried things like putting favourite things in containers with lids, he will brin them to me, showing he wants them but wont verbally request in anyway but cries. When i didnt open it for him he just goes off and figures it out on his own, hes very good at figuring out how to get into things like that.

inwant to hope so badly that he will speak soon but i feel so defeated that he has no hope to learn if he hasnt by now

it does help to hear many of you have learned to use spoken language after age 3, i just wish i had a crystal ball to show me how he would be at 5 or 10 so then i coukd know and not be filled with worry

I was able to read when I was about 4, but couldn't write until I was 6.

I was able to pick up a book at age 5 1/2 and read it; the book in question was "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss. I used to hate ham! (not because of the book!)

I don't remember not knowing how to read.

The first thing I wrote was my full name. Before then, I would pretend to write by scribbling.

This was probably a matter of a sort of "apraxia of body" which many Aspies/autistics exhibit.

I didn’t speak until age 2.

You might want to explore ASL (American Sign Language) we used it with our children (pre speech) when they were younger (from about 6mo. to 18 mo.) It can be helpful to instill language processing even if the speech skills are delayed.

When a child learns that he only gets candy when he “asks” please, he learns signs pretty quickly.

tha k you all again, its so remarkble to me that some of you were able to read and write before speaking. my son isnt at into books being read to him, sometimes he will look at them on his own. maybe i just need to be tougher with him, i feel so bad when hes just crying because he wants something, but perhaps if i really didnt give in when asking for treats he would pick up on some requests

I didn't start talking until I was 8 years old. And now at 16 I still don't talk much. I have had years of speech therapy. I think a few hours a week sounds like plenty as personally I have always found it grueling. Even though I am mostly nonverbal, I write like a champ.

I have yet to fully develop in the realm of verbalization.

For those of you who are non verbal is there anything I can do now to help my son learn to communicate without words? Is there anything you think would have helped you more? Or anything you feel made things worse?

Also I hope you don't mind my asking, as I know it's quite personal (so don't answer if you don't want to) if you do not talk or talk very little is it because you can't physically talk or do you choose not to?

How is your son with computers?

If he's pretty good with them, I believe he would benefit by having what I would call a "talking machine," but what most people call an "Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device" designed for kids his age.

Basically, at his age, there will be symbols for common requests and common everyday things in life. All he has to do is push the button, and the machine will do the "talking." This would also be a good way to teach him to type. He can type in "cat," say, and machine will say "cat." A symbol of a cat will probably come on as well, accompanied by a "meow."

In most of them, probably, an individual "voice" can be created.

Basically, he can "talk" using this machine. Especially if he feels a desire to communicate, this would lessen his frustration.

The only trouble: some of these machines are quite expensive--but, perhaps, the school district will pay for it.

I don't really like PECS all that much--unless you know he will have trouble speaking later in life.

Hello. I also agree with what kraftiekortie says. I had a kid in my class starting from kindergarten to grade 5, and he had speech problems, like he couldn't really talk fluently and was hard to understand him. But he had the Augmentative and Alternative Communication Device and it seemed to help him with people understanding him. It does seem to be expensive though, so I wouldn't consider this as a first option.

I would suggest possibly teaching sign language as someone else suggested. Maybe even just developed signals for basic words (ie yes, no, bathroom, etc.).

Make sure to never punish him for not using his words, and reward him when he makes a sound(s) or words when words are needed. I'm not saying you do this in any way. I know that people would get frustrated when someone is not responding to them. Like, I could talk, but didn't talk much in school the first few years, which I believe is due to my social anxiety. People would get frustrated at me for not talking, which would add pressure to me and keep me from wanting to talk. I could talk there, but chose not to due to (in my opinion now) excessive anxiety.

Hope this helps