Did your non-verbal two-year-old eventually develop normal speech?

[Wonderinggg]

Has anyone had a child who was essentially non-verbal at 2 and also wasn’t much of a babbler as a baby, but still went on to develop normal speech?

My son is 2 and has no meaningful words yet. He understands a lot, follows instructions, points to communicate, has good eye contact, responds to his name, plays well with other children, shows joint attention, and a consultant paediatrician felt he does not show signs suggestive of autism.

One thing that worries me is that he wasn’t really doing the typical reciprocal babbling at 10–12 months. He would copy some sounds, but never seemed to go through a strong babbling stage.

We’re under speech and language therapy and have had a neurological assessment which was reassuring, but I’m finding it hard not to worry about his future speech.

I’d love to hear from parents whose children were late talkers, especially if they weren’t babbling much as babies. When did speech eventually emerge, and how are they doing now?

Thank you.

Mine was pretty much non verbal at 2 and now can quote the most complex of information at you for hours!

Language and conversation still so t great (he is autistic!) but he’s got an above average IQ and can learn and remember the most difficult of information on the most obscure subjects!

So yes, for us being in verbal and means nothing in the long term with regards his communication and speech.

That’s despite for us it being autism.

Yes, 4 now incredible vocab and excellent pronunciation.

Not diagnosed with anything so far. Believe he will be dyslexic.

Yes

Didnt talk til 2.5
Now 11 and doesn’t stop

My son was non verbal up to about 3. He made up his own sign language for things he wanted. He started talking and was completely fine, he's in his 20's now. He was just a late talker.

DS had “mama” on his second birthday and that’s it. No other meaningful words until his 3rd birthday and even since then he’s been noticeably behind his peers. 6 and a half now and his vocab is about average but he does struggle pronouncing certain letter sounds.

Expecting an ADHD and dyslexia diagnosis within a year or two to be honest.

Yes. We started speech therapy at 3. Was still behind in speech when she started school. Is now mid-twenties and you wouldn’t know she’d had any trouble.

My 15 year old DS also didn’t say a word until 2.5: we think it was just because he didn’t need to - he pointed to things and his older siblings fetched them. He started playgroup at 3 and he was using full sentences there within a few months. We did have a month or so of him not saying much at all at home and chatting away at playgroup.

I would recommend mentioning your concerns to nursery/health visitor/gp sooner rather than later though for a referral to speech and language because the waiting lists are obscene!

My friend's son didn't speak properly until gone two. He's now a very wealthy financial advisor 😀

DD was very late to talk, and used to use one word - dargy or nargy - for everything. Didn't really use sentences til gone 4. Is now off to uni.

However, she is the 4th generation in my family that I know to have very late speech development so I wasn't overly worried. She was also at home with me other than preschool for 10 hours a week so maybe didn't have the need to push on with speech as I was always on hand.

Totally non verbal at 2, didn’t point with index finger but whole hand. Had good eye contact mostly, started speaking in short sentences around 3.5, now 7 and has some slight issues with speech and understanding but nothing that keeps me up at night anymore. Awaiting asd diagnosis.

Various things including, but not limited to really really struggling with phonics (both reading and writing), lots of guessing at words and muddling up sounds and letters, bizarre pencil grip that no amount of practicing or correcting can change, frequent backwards letter and number formation when writing. It wouldn’t be a worry particularly if he was in reception but he’s not and is barely hitting the markers for “working towards” in most areas because he struggles so much.

He’s not daft and is a bright kid who can answer a question verbally best he can, I do a lot with him at home and he’s in intervention at school and is actually coming along at his own pace but for a child that loves books and stories so much, it just doesn’t seem to compute in his head bless him.

My son was talking before 2 but suddenly stopped and commenced at about 2.5 He is autistic but very clever just not good socially . My eldest was not talking much at 2 ,, I don't think it's that unusuall for boys to be late talkers .

My niece didn't say a word until age 3. She's now a very intelligent 13 year old, no issues at all

No words until 3 and then very limited until close to 4. Now age 7 and doesn’t shut up! She can talk very well, much better than a lot of her friends and shows absolutely no signs of autism etc

My oldest wasnt talking in any meaningful way (full sentences, two way communication) until he was about 7, he's now 27 and talks normally, he just sounds like english isnt his first language so people have told us.

My youngest was exclusively echolalic until about ten and he is now 25 and can talk very well, just chooses not to most of the time.

My son was pretty much incomprehensible at 5 years old. I could understand him, as could our childminder, but nobody else and I can’t understand videos from then when I watch them back now.

When school taught him phonics; the phonemes, the graphemes, the reading, the songs etc etc it was like he suddenly had the whole puzzle and was able to speak clearly too. Totally amazed everybody involved (including speech therapists that had managed zero improvement over two years).

He was always able to communicate, and he always wanted to communicate. The intention was always there. But he was virtually non-verbal, and incomprehensible when he did verbalise the things that really mattered enough to force something out.

Our speech therapist always said to focus on communication and not speech. Pointing, grunting, passing you a cup and looking at the tap, finding a way to give the message is really encouraging. Speech is just one way of achieving communication, and it might come at a later time than most of his peers.

My DS is now year 6 and very bright. Undiagnosed but probably autistic. Shining star of a kid, kind sibling, curious learner, obsessive hobbyist and so so positive about his own future and what he is going to do with it. If he is autistic, and he’ll probably never pursue a diagnosis so we’ll never know, then it won’t hold him back. He is killing life now, aged 11, when he couldn’t pronounce any word clearly when he was 5 years old.

It’s really worrying, but it might all resolve in its own time yet.

I have a thirty year old who had delayed speech which was picked up by his year one teacher. He had a small amount of support but nothing significant. He was always slightly behind his peers with speech but had an excellent vocabulary. Did very well at school and now regularly presents at work. I can still hear the delay though and wonder if we should have pushed for more SALT support. He grew up in a household with two very different accents and is an only child so that may have impacted too.

DD could say 150 words at age 3 and a half but not joined up words. 20 years later she’s a fluent speaker and at university. Her speech delay was like having a faulty printer. The words were in her head but couldn’t get out. Bit like a stutter. She still gets this when tired.

Yes and now she's a real chatterbox!

My uncle didn't speak a word until aged four. He became a CEO of a large company.

I didn’t say a word until I was 2.5 years but went on to be academic at school and have a PhD. I still hate public speaking but have given talks in front of a few hundred people at conferences.

When ds1 was nearly 2 years old, I made a list of all the words he said - and it was only approx 40 words - and a good proportion of them were only ‘words’ in that dh and I knew what they meant - like Cor-cuck-cuck for helicopter.

He went on to become the child who could talk the hind leg off a donkey, especially on his specialist subject - trains - and did a Law degree - which requires the gift of the gab.

Yup. My brother. He said nothing until he was three. Literally nothing. My mum thought he was deaf Then one day randomly asked a question. She was shocked. He is very very bright but not autistic.

Both mine had limited speech at 2 - walked at 8m, speech delay requiring several years of speech therapy. I was the same, apparently spoke like Donald duck when 3-4 and also had speech therapy for my lisp.

But yes, we all caught up. Am doing a Phd, my eldest is reading classics and ancient history, youngest hoping to read physics in September. We are all AuDHD.

So unless there are co-morbid developmental delay issues that your HV and nursery feel need investigating, I’d try not to worry. Keep talking to hem, reading books, watch favourite TV programmes together (and TALK about them about what you are watching, just as you would look at pictures in a story book), they will get there. My kids’ vocab is extraordinary - I think they were listening, processing and waiting until they felt that had anything worthwhile to say before bothering, really.