2.5 yrs old and still no words.... any hope?

[Anonymous]

My DD is 2.5 yrs old and despite lots of intervention (county and private) still has no words. She is likely ASD (not yet formally diagnosed), but is fairly engaged, with good affect, low tone, and lack of focus. There is obviously a receptive component to her speech delays since she follows very few directions, but hearing is fine and she can understand the tone/affect of your voice. Because other interventions haven't been very effective, we started ABA a couple of months ago. I constantly worry if she will ever speak. I'm curious if others have any words of hope? Anyone with children that did not talk at 2.5 yrs and it finally clicked for them?

[Anonymous]

Not a parent, but a preschool teacher. I have seen several children enter my program who had no language at 3 and plenty when they left us 2 years later. For most of them it was a long hard uphill climb for those 2 years, but it definitely happened.

[Anonymous]

My ds had no words at 2.5. He is now 4 and while he still has a long way to go, has quite a few words and communicates well enough.

[Anonymous]

There is hope! Has your DD been evaluated by a developmental pediatrician? If not, I highly recommend it. You need a global evaluation to help better understand what's going on. My youngest DS had very, very few words at age two - less than 10 and even those weren't intelligible to most people. His hearing was fine but but he didn't seem to understand directions. After 6 months of therapy, he still didn't have any carrier phrases (such as "I want..."). At the recommendation of his SLP, we started teaching him sign language which he had better success with. When he was 2.5, ASD was definitively ruled out by the developmental pediatrician and an NIH research team. It's easy to see why some might consider him autistic but now that he's older and we're seeing the result of the interventions we can see his lack of response and social challenges are primarily due to his communication challenges and executive functioning deficits - not to mention the developmental delays. Even though he's 5 now, in many areas he functions more like a 3.5 - 4 yo.

Does your DD have any motor planning/coordination challenges? The reason I ask is that it wasn't until my DS started working with a PROMPT certified SLP that we really saw improvement in his language communication. I found out about PROMPT through DCUMs, did some research on it and discussed it with our dev ped. It seems to be the therapy of choice for kids with motor planning/coordination challenges and I can see why. We've been doing it for a year now and I wish I had done it earlier. DS is still delayed but we've really seen heartening improvement, especially when we look at where he was when he came in.

One of the other things I think made a big difference is that he when he transitioned out of Infant Toddler (we're in Fairfax County), he qualified for a FCPS non-categorical special ed preschool. At first I was concerned about the functioning level of the other kids, behaviors he may pick up, etc (yes, all that ignorant stuff) but it was amazing. I'm so impressed with the it and it was an excellent environment. Since your DD is 2.5, you should start planning the transition from Early Intervention to Child Find. My DS started the special ed preschool before his 3rd birthday. It was hard on us at first (can you imagine putting your baby girl on a bus? or missing that afternoon nap?) but we all adapted and it was the best thing for him. You might also consider participating in one of the NIH studies. I've got three kids and between them, we've participated in a good number of them. The researchers are amazing, our kids really enjoyed participating, the researchers have been fabulous resources for us even after the study is over and the NIH reports are the best we've received - all at no cost to us! We've learned so much from them. I think this is the ASD study we participated in. You don't have to have a diagnosis and it's open to kids with 'developmental delays' http://clinicalstudies.info.nih.gov/cgi/wais/bold032001.pl?A_06-M-0102.html@autism

[Anonymous]

OP here- thanks you so much for your hopeful responses. My DD will enter a PEP preschool class when she turns three, and I'm hopeful that the environment will stimulate her to start talking. I have taken her to a developmental pediatrician on two occasions, and will likely take her for yet another evaluation prior to her preschool transition meeting. Thus far, she's been labeled with "global developmental delays." Autism has been mentioned by a couple of specialists as a possibility, but no one seems to want to hang their hat on that Dx. Her SLP believes that motor planning issues are at the core of the problem. Sign language is out of the question, because the motor skills required are too challenging right now, as her arms/hands seem to be affected the most. I will definitely look into the NIH studies... Thank you sooo much for the recommendation!

[Anonymous]

DS spoke his first "words" (single syllable) at 3.5, and now, at 7, literally never stops talking. He dropped his signs by almost 4 - he was entirely verbal by then. He still speaks with a slight "accent" now, but he is totally understandably by all. We did intensive PROMPT, language-based preschool, PEP, OT, feeding therapy, you name it. We used up all of our savings and dug into 401Ks, but it was totally worth it.

Close friends of ours have a DD who began to speak at 5 and now is 100% verbal 4 years later too. Interventions are especially effective when a child is as young as yours. Please do not drop the idea of signs -- we did modified "babysigns" with DS (who also had - and has - motor planning issues as part of his global dev delay), and these really helped him communicate and not feel frustrated. The signs are so simple and you can even, if you need to, make up your own, just so long as your child can communicate to you. In fact, it was just at 3.5, when he had started his version of PEP (we lived in another state then, so it wasn't called PEP), that they first worried that the signs I had taught him weren't the "right" ones and called in a sign langugae interpreter to help me with better (more correct) signs. But meanwhile, we had gotten a good 1.5 to 2 years' worth of communication out of those babysigns, so I highly recommend them. And then, just as I started school myself to learn ASL, DS started to speak so it was all a mute point.

Good luck and please DO NOT GIVE UP HOPE!

[Anonymous]

I agree with the poster who said don't be quick to rule out sign. No, your child may never be fluent in ASL, but sometimes being able to express something (even if it's just raising their hands for up, or a simple clap for more) is what builds the motivation to express things orally.

And signs are so much easier to teach because you have the option of working hand over hand.

[Anonymous]

My DD's story is similar to 6:35's. Tons of red flags for autism when she turned 2 (receptive language delay, no pointing, no following a point, toe walked, didn't imitate well, etc).

Now that she is almost 3, her language has come in enough for her dev ped to officially rule out autism. Right now her diagnosis is mixed expressive-receptive language disorder and mild dyspraxia (motor planning disorder), and adhd is very likely in her future.

She also attends the fcps half-day non-categorical preschool program, and it has been AWESOME for her.

There is hope. There is lots of hope.

[Anonymous]

OMG, 21.57, u just gave me a big hope. Thank you

[Anonymous]

My grandmother did not speak at all until she was around 5 years old. She grew up to be a social, fully functional adult with excellent verbal skills. She was from a poor family and early intervention didn't exist, so I'm sure your child has much better odds than she did for an excellent outcome.

[Anonymous]

Plenty of hope! Tons our children on our late talkers board have few words at age 2, but are caught up by anywhere from K through 3rd grade.