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butterflycake

Anyone who has a child who was nonverbal when they were young how are they now?

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Im just wondering, my ds is 3 and nonverbal. He starts special school in a couple of months. And im wonering if and when he will ever be able to talk. Id appretiate any experiences anyone has of a nonverbal child who is older and has or has not learned to talk. Thanks.

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Is he learning any other methods of communication? Say PECS or Makaton? It's not whether they talk that matters in the long run, it's how well they are able to communicate.

My lad is only three and is verbal but it's very disordered, delayed echolalia for the most part and nothing said TO anyone. I am teaching him Makaton and I can now get him to sign "T" for Tom after being asked and signed to "what's your name?"

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He has no way of communicating at the minute. I know speech isnt the most important thing, i was only wanting to hear others experiences. They will be using pecs and teacch at the special school he starts in September.

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butterfly. Luke was non-verbal until he was 3ish then started echolalia. He is 9 now and extremely articulate but he still has residual receptive and pragmatic language difficulties and he has times when he is 'mute', particularly if we have house guests and at these times he will only whisper to me and says nothing to anyone else.. this will last as long as we have the guests! It also happens when we visit people (not everyone though.. just certain people).

 

It was a long process from him beginning to say words and echoing to full development of language, and one of the things that helped him was when he had auditory processing assessment and did a long course of sound therapy. Up until he was about 7 it was almost impossible to have a conversation with him.

 

Like I said, even though he is very articulate, he still has mild difficulties with receptive language. He still takes many things literally, and also when answering question he is over precise.

 

I would definately reccomend using PECs. I didn't even know about pecs when Luke was non-verbal, but it would have made his young childhood so much happier and less frustrating for him.

 

Lauren

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Thanks for the message Lauren. A lot of this is new to me. I met my sons teacher a couple of weeks ago and she briefly explained Pecs and Teacch. So im hoping it helps him, as im feeling a bit useless at the minute because i dont know much. He has in the past said a couple of words and he says daddy at least once every day and the teacher said thats a good sign.

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I'm sorry if I upset you, just trying to put your mind at ease that there are alternatives :).

I am 31 with probable Aspergers and still struggle with speech. I can talk fine, very articulate but I struggle to initiate conversations, to do two way conversations, to join in with group conversations and if I'm very stressed or upset at something I can't talk at all. I also have a habit of talking "through" my DH, eg asking him if he can ask someone else sitting next to us something, which I used to do with my mum as a child. However, I am able to talk well enough when I can.

Edited by Bullet

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Hi Bullet , no you havent upset me dont be silly :D Ive just read back my post and it sounded a bit short, i apologise. im just wanting to find more out about autism from other peoples experiences because i dont know any other kids personally who have it apart from ds2 whos autistic and we also suspect ds1 has aspergers.

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My son was non verbal when he was younger hed just scream and make noises but would use at times signals to indicate his needs ie juice food ect.We evern learned a simple sign language to help him communicate.

 

 

I know ever child is different but my son is now 12 and we have to tell him to shut up.Hes very verbal.He attends a special school started when he was 6 and his language took off then.Hed go for months and not appaear to learn anything then wham all hed learnt would come out at once !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I often say autistic kids,Aspies are sponges they soak up everything but youve to know how to squeeze the sponge to find out what they know once you tapp into that theres no stopping them. :D

Edited by Paula

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phas jr was non verbal until he was 6 yrs old, we had him assessed by camhs, speech therapy et al, but they all just told us his brain is going to fast for his tongue to keep up with so he isn't trying to do so, he knows what he wants and doesn't understand why you don't, sensory overload means somethings got to give, so to carry on doing what we were which was talking to him and if he pointed to something eg a cup, say would you like a drink, here you are, heres your drink thank you. talk to him when doing anything, point things out to him, describe what you are doing. you may get sick of your own voice and you might think it's all no good, phas jr wasn't given a dx until he was nearly 12 but is now 16, is so verbal it's unbelievable, taken 11 gcse's in a mainstream school, got and gave up a saturday job. he still has his problems with semantic pragmatic, he does go on about what he feels important and will interupt if he feels the conversation has gone on too long about things that don't interest him but non verbal he definately is not.

 

hope this gives you some encouragement and hope, but don't forget our children are all different, just like nt children, they walk,talk,feed and potty all at different times, what is right for your child is right for your child, you are probably stressing more about this than your child because that is what we, as parents, do.

 

:wub:>:D<<'>

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Hi Butterflycake - we're in exactly the same position - Logan is 3 in August and at the moment is completey non verbal with very little non-verbal communication either - I did think a few months ago that he was trying to vocalise but I think i was hoping rather than hearing.

 

We tried Makaton which didn't really work, but have just started PECS with very encouraging early results :-) :-) I'm doing Early Bird at the moment and I've found it very very useful in helping me realise that talking really isn't important but finding a means of communication is and for us I think its going to be PECS!

 

Lynne x

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Hi Butterfly my son was non verbal until 4 years of age. Then he started to speak a few single words. Now he can speak so well although at times he can still become non verbal for many hours.

 

Jen

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My boy is completely non-verbal age 6.

 

He has started communicating with sign language. It's a start and we're really proud of him :D

 

He started special school age 3 and has communicated with PEC's but doesn't really like it much! The school uses signalong which is based on BSL and different to makaton :)

Edited by Lila-Zen

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my DS was non verbal til about 4. now he is 6, talks like a 3 year old and does make up a lot of words and chats a lot of baby waffle.

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Once Sean went to 'special nursery'at 3 his speech came on in leaps and bounds. Now at 14 I'm desperately looking for the on/off switch!!!!!!!!!!!! (can recite whole Simpsons episodes without drawing breath)

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Ds1 did his first sign to me today that wasn't him just copying. He's signed a couple of things independantly to himself, but this is the first time he's wanted to make me aware of something other than just dragging me to what he wants.

It was "time for bed" and ironically he's still awake :D

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I have a 12 year old non verbal son. He is profoundly dyspraxic. We never had it formally diagnonosed because I took the very few sessions we got with the OT to have some therapy rather than lose at least one session in a formal assessment. I was pleased to see that the SLT at his current school has sent out his annual review notes with a possible dyspraxia note with it, so maybe he'll get the label officially.

 

The Dyspraxia Foundation website has a list of possible indicators according to the age of the child.

 

Makaton was impossible for him so we do PECS and he has a voice output device, but he is very good at indicating his needs by dragging me by the hand. This is his preferred mode and I find it acceptable. His receptive language is good and I have always assumed that he can understand everything and give him a running commentary. He can't do long lists of instructions - breaks up in laughter if it's more than two. 'Take this to the kitchen and put it in the sink' If I then say 'And bring back...' he laughs and cannot do it.

 

Again because of the dyspraxia his handwriting is non-existant, although he will use a mouse and is learning to type.

 

My biggest worry is how much being nonverbal makes him vulnerable and we take a lot of precautions to safeguard him.

Edited by call me jaded

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Was nonverbal, now I'm not. Though sometimes I am. Depends on what is going on around me and what it is I need to convey. If you want me to tell you what a four-cornered triangle looks like; can't do that.

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Hi Butterflycake,

 

I remember the first time my son became non verbal it was quite a scary experience as he was saying words then all of a sudden his eyes and words went, he was observed in the childrens ward for a week and they ran a whole battery of tests, but it settled a bit and he fluctuated. Once he was in preschool they education support service swooped in and had him going to speech therapists and occupational therapist, I remember the preschool teacher pointing out to me see how he turns around when a child talks to him he looks everywhere but at the child and the children walk away as they think he is ignoring them as he seemed to not be able to answer them. We had many specialists assessing him as he had several problems along with Autism, like ADHD they were going to make him repeat preschool as none of the schools were going to be able to take him then the Paediatrician introduced Ritalin at the age of 5 and he was able to main some eye contact but not that great and he was able to paint a dog instead of splatter. I remember he answered a question for the first time and made a comment back. We had support from the word go but had to more into an area where he would attend special school as none of the schools in the area could meet his needs.

 

The school he attended ended up doing workshops with the special school to help him and he had a special needs teacher assist him in class right up until year 6. I had to meet with the teacher every week to help fine tune a program at home, and after school programs with the special school, they used techniques like ABA O/t and many other things to help him with eye hand and motor co=ordination. The school received a lot of funding to assist him.

 

Once in high school he regressed again and I had private tutors in English and Maths to keep him up with his peers, but things went a bit pear shaped, so its been a few steps forward and many steps back, but, not for trying on both sides. I have had to fight for everything he has received in high school and college. But it has paid off. Sorry a bit of a rant here, but, just have to be strong as it can be a challenge at times, and I am very greatful for the lovely people on here as I feel the past year and a half has been quite a challenge all round.

 

At the end of the day I say he is like a piece of silver that tarnishes easily and I just have to keep on polishing him up, and the shine pays off and glows to make it all worth it.

 

Some times I just sigh and he says 'I love you Mum' randomly and you realise he is worth every tear and joy. I love my boy. :thumbs:

 

:D

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Neil had no speech until he was almost ten. He had speech therapy from the age of two and was also under a professor of linguistics because his speech was so intractable. Although his speech is now in the normal range(he is now sixteen) he still has consistant difficulty with understanding conversation and struggles to find the words he wants to use. His conversation is therefore slow and ponderous. It is also spoken in a monotonous tone. He has no descriptive vocabulary and is unable to recall verbally events. He loves films and watches them constantly, often the same film, however if you ask him what the film was about he frequently can't tell you.

We are over the moon though that his speech is at this level, we were told that he would in all probility never master speech, and it is a testament to his determination that he has achieved so much.

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my son only made squeaky sounds till he was about 4, then he went to speech therapy and began to speak when he went to playgroup. I think he could speak but was afraid to, but he had to at playgroup. >:D<<'>

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Hiya My son is non verbal will be 7 in October. He uses the handpulling to indicate whathe wants and is quite forceful with it lol! almost pulling me off my feet as he is a strong little boy!

 

We are currently using PECs but he doesnt seem to accept these from me and by passes them in favour of hand pulling.

 

He uses the odd word now n then but i have every hope that one day he will start to speak. His sister was once non verbal and made good progress now cant shut her up as she talks incessantly about one subject Groan!

 

All we have sometimes is hope, sometimes words cannot express all that we want to say. My son says more than enough in a facial expression and a hug.

 

Good luck!

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Nathan was non verbal by 3 he was using the odd....very odd...echolic word.

 

He did not begin to use single words in any context untill he started at his special primary...by year 6 he was using whole sentances.

At 16 I look longingly at the gaffa tape.

Nathan makes up 30% of his own sentances and applies echoed sentances the rest of the time and can get an approbraite echo almost 80% of the time.

The downside now is when he is awake he does not stop talking at all. :blink:

From the sublime to the ridicolous.

 

Sam did not verbalise and screamed from a mix of word finding difficulties and adhd.

Once he discovered technical jargon he was off at 4 1/2.

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