Was I speech delayed?

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Does this count as a "significant" speech delay?

At age 2 I could say 10 single words. Could not ask for any wants and needs through speech, preferred nonverbal communication.
Until age 4 or 5 did I start speaking in sentences unprompted. I could repeat a sentence when asked. My mom used to ask me basic questions which often I answered "yeah" until age 4 or so...If I didn't know I would ignore the question and her.

It took persistence to get me from doing some repetitive activity to answer my mom, as a toddler. My overall social interaction was noticeably impaired and I was mostly "in my own world" and sometimes unresponsive to social interaction until age 6.

I would say so.
10 single words at age 2 is not much.
At 3, children should be able to form simple sentences by themselves.

Yes, but mild. Two-year-olds are usually stringing together phrases and short sentences; four-year-olds are starting out on conversations. But kids do develop at different rates, and sometimes they're slow at first and catch up by school age. The fifth or tenth percentile of the population might be that slow to learn to speak; I'm not sure where exactly you would stand--notably slow, but not extremely so, is my guess. If that speech delay is all the kid has, it's usually not a problem, but it is an indicator that there might be a problem somewhere, like a hearing problem or a more general developmental delay, and most docs would probably look into it. If a kid that age is behind but learning steadily, it's usually just something they treat by giving the kid plenty of opportunities to learn, maybe one of those early-childhood programs or maybe just a few sessions with an OT and the parents to teach them how to help the child catch up. Preemies are often behind like that, or kids who've had early illnesses--if they catch up steadily, it's one of those "watch and wait" things. If they're stalled or losing skills, it's more of a serious problem.

I was born 2 months early and losing my life to a virus before birth, at 1 pound 8 ounces. It was not long after that when intentive early intervention was begun, and I was known to be developmentally delayed in motor skills and speech.


Thanks for the detailed response Callista. I agree that it was a mild delay all around.

Last edited by Lumi on 23 May 2013, 10:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You were speech on timed! IMO I dont think echolalia counts as speech delay I had echolalia before I engaged in full conversations!

You very clearly didn't lose your life before birth.

double post

Last edited by Lumi on 24 May 2013, 2:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

True, though it seems to have impacted my development.

Well, AS criteria requires single words by 2 and sentences by 3 (not counting echolalic phrases). So you'd be delayed by their criteria.

Though at the time, I was more verbal to strangers than I am now. I meet the autism listing by disability benefits in the US.

Last edited by Lumi on 25 May 2013, 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f80P40VO1uY[/youtube] Yukie is definatly Autistic!

That was a funny video, thanks for posting it.

i did not speak a word until i was 3 years old. i knew how to speak, but i just did not bother. i had nothing i wanted to share with anyone until i was 3.
before i was 3, i used to point at what i wanted, and everyone else accommodated me. the first word i said (as my mother told me) was "scrambled'. she said that she asked my older sisters how they wanted their eggs one morning, and i shouted "scrambled".
so my first word was "scrambled". they were very surprised that i said a word, and they then started to quiz me and they found that i could talk very well.