Is it possable for someone with autism 2 talk as an adult?

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Sorry; I couldn't be clearer . This wouldn't let me write too much in the title! Can someone with autism, who can't speak, learn to speak as an adult?

I think it depends on the individual....but as a rule people learn that stuff at a very early age when their brain can absorb it all, this is also why its easier for young children to learn foriegn languages than high school students or adults. But that is not to say it can't happen its just more difficult as an adult to learn those things.

Autism 2: The Revenge!

This time it's personal.

Yes.

It is not quite impossible, but exceedingly unlikely. Unless the person was not speaking for reasons other than nonverbal autism, that is. For autistic nonverbal adults, the same problems are present that inhibited speech when they were a child but in addition the brain itself is now significantly less capable of learning speech. If a nonberbal autistic will ever learn to speak, it will be when they are still a child, before the age of 13-14 or so.

There are of course many other alternate methods of communication, speech is not necessary.

It depends on what you mean by couldn't speak. Do you mean: can a person who is nonverbal until adulthood eventually speak like an adult? Or do you mean: can a person with autism who was EVER nonverbal speak like an adult. Minus a couple months before my regression, I was nonverbal until I was about 5 (or at least very poorly verbal, as I was relearning how to speak). By the time I was 5 1/2, I was speaking "normally" except my normal was also more advanced than the average kid my age. Even during those couple months (between the time I was non-verbal to my regression), I was speaking in sentences. I had learned how to use sentences in just a couple months, and when I could talk again, my sentences sounded more mature that other kids. As an adult, my sentences are immature in comparison, but my vocabulary and grammatical skills are often superior to my friends, I just do not know how to use them in a social context.

I have read that most people with autism gain adequate speech as adults. So, yes.

I mean that someone is non-verbal until adulthood, then eventually learns to speak as an adult.

How much speech counts as 'verbal'?

If you mean, could a person go from no useful speech to no speech delay in adulthood, I suppose it may be possible but it's extremely unlikely.

If you mean someone with no useful speech learning five to ten communicative words in adulthood, that happens all the time. People don't stop learning just because they've reached adulthood. Certain kinds of learning slow down (including language learning) and other kinds change, but no kind of learning completely stops. Especially if people don't stop trying to teach you.

However, unless some drastic change happens in their brain structure, they'll be using the same brain to learn speech in adulthood that failed to learn it in childhood, minus the added bonus of child-like language learning skills. So I seriously doubt they'd ever get more than a few words.

Another comment is that most 'nonverbal' people actually can say a few words, but so few that they can't meet most of their communication needs with speech (eg telling someone to stop, requesting commonly desired items, etc). I knew a kid whose only useful speech was 'yes' and 'no', and he was referred to as nonverbal. Someone like that is probably more likely to advance in speech than someone with no speech at all, since they have demonstrated that they can learn to use communicative words, and since it isn't as far to go from that to more useful verbal skills.