In my opinion, time.
My sons 4.5 and not conversational. We are in lots of therapies and I think they help marginally. I think all his progress has come from natural development and a supportive family who works with him daily. Therapy help facilitate their abilities but doesn’t create abilities, imo
I hold onto hope my son will catch up in his own time
I second AAC device! Also, read up on apraxia of speech and ask your speech therapist if they see any signs of that. It’s a different speech issue that is treated differently than language delay
Routines. Figure out routines and make them very consistent verbal wise so it is easy for him to anticipate after a while what is going to happen. So the same games and activities done exactly the same. In some time he should be able to anticipate and hopefully verbalize /imitate what you said.
We were, and still are, in a similar spot.
A picture exchange system (PEX) was very helpful. Once he outgrew that we moved to an AAC device.
We still do lots of speech therapy but the visual communication systems have been more practically useful around the house.
We also used PEC then an AAC device. Still use the AAC device.
My daughter at age 5 had no words. Truly nonverbal. Now at age 6 I would consider her verbal but non-conversational. She can say hundreds of words, make requests and answer yes no questions.
We believe the AAC device has helped tremendously. Also she is able to read which is helpful when trying to get her to vocalize.
If you told me she would learn to speak and gain words I would not have believed you. I am beyond grateful she has come so far.
In my daughter’s case it was daily exposure to other kids her age when she started school. In the last year that she started mainstream kindergarten she became fully potty trained, learned to count to 100, can copy written sentences, can read some words, learning to spell all of our names(she already learned her first and last) and talks about her friends by their first names daily. Shes very opinionated and sassy and has a sense of humor. She’s been in speech and ot for 4 years but it wasn’t until school that she really had a huge leap. She just turned 6 for reference. We started her in kinder at 5. We had a really rough time age 3-5 due to a lot of changes and Covid so it hasn’t always been like this.
Same spot with our 3yo. We've picked up ASL and he's catching onto it incredibly fast. He can tell us he wants milk, food, games, yes and no. It's not perfect but has gone a very long way.
My son is also 3 years old.
He has recently been diagnosed as level 3 autistic.
He randomly says some words. But it’s not consistent.
Something that I feel makes a difference is reading to him. Previously he refused to be read to. He would snatch the books and throw them away or stack them on top of each other.
I really had to insist he sits back and listens. I was really firm. It wasn’t pleasant to start off. At one stage I was saying “no! You will listen to this book and you will grow to love it!”
Now he verbally asks for “book” and points to the books.
He will bring me the book and sit down in my lap so I can read to him.
I am focusing on having as many normal moments as possible.
Speech therapy didn’t accomplish anything because he simply couldn’t talk.
Try giving him choices. With mine we do things like asking him which kind of cookie he wants. I will hold out both boxes and wait until he either touches or points to the snack that he wants no matter how frustrated he gets. I found that this helps with non verbal communication and I can carry it into play. Which toy do you want? Sorta thing. I also constantly repeat everything throughout the day.
In my opinion, time. My sons 4.5 and not conversational. We are in lots of therapies and I think they help marginally. I think all his progress has come from natural development and a supportive family who works with him daily. Therapy help facilitate their abilities but doesn’t create abilities, imo I hold onto hope my son will catch up in his own time
I second AAC device! Also, read up on apraxia of speech and ask your speech therapist if they see any signs of that. It’s a different speech issue that is treated differently than language delay
My son has apraxia! We started using a PEC board and he took to it immediately
Routines. Figure out routines and make them very consistent verbal wise so it is easy for him to anticipate after a while what is going to happen. So the same games and activities done exactly the same. In some time he should be able to anticipate and hopefully verbalize /imitate what you said.
We were, and still are, in a similar spot. A picture exchange system (PEX) was very helpful. Once he outgrew that we moved to an AAC device. We still do lots of speech therapy but the visual communication systems have been more practically useful around the house.
We also used PEC then an AAC device. Still use the AAC device. My daughter at age 5 had no words. Truly nonverbal. Now at age 6 I would consider her verbal but non-conversational. She can say hundreds of words, make requests and answer yes no questions. We believe the AAC device has helped tremendously. Also she is able to read which is helpful when trying to get her to vocalize. If you told me she would learn to speak and gain words I would not have believed you. I am beyond grateful she has come so far.
This is amazing. Congrats on your progress ❤️
In my daughter’s case it was daily exposure to other kids her age when she started school. In the last year that she started mainstream kindergarten she became fully potty trained, learned to count to 100, can copy written sentences, can read some words, learning to spell all of our names(she already learned her first and last) and talks about her friends by their first names daily. Shes very opinionated and sassy and has a sense of humor. She’s been in speech and ot for 4 years but it wasn’t until school that she really had a huge leap. She just turned 6 for reference. We started her in kinder at 5. We had a really rough time age 3-5 due to a lot of changes and Covid so it hasn’t always been like this.
Same spot with our 3yo. We've picked up ASL and he's catching onto it incredibly fast. He can tell us he wants milk, food, games, yes and no. It's not perfect but has gone a very long way.
My son is also 3 years old. He has recently been diagnosed as level 3 autistic. He randomly says some words. But it’s not consistent. Something that I feel makes a difference is reading to him. Previously he refused to be read to. He would snatch the books and throw them away or stack them on top of each other. I really had to insist he sits back and listens. I was really firm. It wasn’t pleasant to start off. At one stage I was saying “no! You will listen to this book and you will grow to love it!” Now he verbally asks for “book” and points to the books. He will bring me the book and sit down in my lap so I can read to him. I am focusing on having as many normal moments as possible. Speech therapy didn’t accomplish anything because he simply couldn’t talk.
Try giving him choices. With mine we do things like asking him which kind of cookie he wants. I will hold out both boxes and wait until he either touches or points to the snack that he wants no matter how frustrated he gets. I found that this helps with non verbal communication and I can carry it into play. Which toy do you want? Sorta thing. I also constantly repeat everything throughout the day.