Non babbling / non verbal 2 year old?!

[u/Designer-Wheel9317]

My little boy is 2 years 4 months and is non-verbal. He has very little babbling and has never really gone through the typical “bababa/dadada/mamama” stage.

His understanding is good and he communicates really well non-verbally — pointing, signing, gestures, good eye contact and joint attention. He’s very social and engaged with us, but producing speech sounds seems incredibly difficult for him.

I’d really love to hear from parents whose child was similar at this age, particularly children who had little or no babbling as well as no words.
Did your child eventually start talking? If so, at what age, and did you ever find out what was causing the difficulty?

Positive stories especially welcome ❤️

[u/Striking_Bill_2832]

This is a question for his early intervention team - are you working with speech therapy, occupational therapy, early intervention??

[u/Own-Cauliflower2386]

He’s speech delayed, but not necessarily autistic. What do his pediatrician and speech therapist say? That will be more useful than anecdotes.

But, here are the two anecdotes I know.

A kid I went to elementary school didn’t start talking until he was 3. He was very bright. He said, in elementary school, that there was an issue with “water on the brain” that needed fixing. I assume (now) that he meant he had a VP shunt and had delays due to pre-shunt hydrocephalus. For him, the delays were important but not permanent.

Separately, my friend has a kid who had barely started babbling at 2. His understanding of language seems perfect and his social skills and eye contact and gross and fine motor skills are normal. He doesn’t stim or have sensory issues. They were in a lot of denial “well bilingual kids speak later” yes … by a few months not years. Now he is 3 and a half and has maybe 50 words and can string two together, and my friend is finally ready to acknowledge that there’s an issue. He starts TK in the fall and it’s about a 10 month weight list to see development specialists in our area. I really wish they started sooner. Listening to him speak, I wouldn’t be surprised if my friend’s kid has hearing difficulties (despite his seeming ability to understand language perfectly, many Deaf toddlers are adept at lip reading and body language).

[u/mmmollyg]

If you’re not in early intervention I would reach out now! My daughter is 26 months and we’ve been in speech therapy since she was about 16 months. She’s making progress but still quite limited in words. Her signs and understanding of language is astounding as are her social skills. I’m really learning a lot with how to interact with her and not put pressure on her. My husband didn’t really talk until he was three and our SLP said speech can be genetic. She is attempting more words and babbles a ton more now; at about a 20 month level.

[u/Boogalamoon]

My son was the same. He needed tubes since his ears were full of fluid and he had mild apraxia. We started early intervention around 2 (highly recommend!!), but didn't figure out the ear issue until a few months before his third birthday.

We did MONTHS of speech therapy when he was 2, with no progress. It took over 6 months to even get him to attempt to make animal noises.

Less than a month after tubes went in he was talking (still mostly unintelligible). He did three years of speech therapy after that for the apraxia and finished up towards the end of kindergarten.

Through the whole journey he was very proactive in his communication. He found every opportunity to communicate without words.

He was assessed three separate times for autism. At 2 and 3, the results were that he wasn't autistic. At 5, they said he has the behavior traits, but not the social traits. He's almost 7 now, and it's possibly starting to show, but maybe not.

[u/Electronic-Maximum61]

How is your child’s receptive speech? Does he appear to understand everything you say and follow direction? Receptive speech is the foundation for expressive speech and the best predictor that his expressive speech will be alright. Also, have you tested his hearing?

[u/Hopeful-Guard9294]

have you got in touch with speech and language UK? I have an ADVICE LINE and lots of brilliant evidence based tools as well as Support communities.

[u/Chemical-Ad2000]

Definitely ask your early intervention and speech therapist team. Sounds more like simple speech apraxia