r/speechdelays

I wondered if any parents of autistic children could share what their child was like at around 2–2.5 years old.

My little boy is 2 years 4 months and essentially non-verbal. He rarely babbles and communicates mainly through pointing, noises and signing. He did previously make a few animal sounds but stopped around 14 months.

I’ve never been sure about autism because socially he has lots of strengths — good eye contact, responds to his name, points to share things, has joint attention, waves/claps/signs, copies us, is very affectionate and understands most of what we say. He also does some pretend play.

However, he doesn’t really approach other children, struggles a lot with transitions and can have long meltdowns or “shutdowns” where he becomes floppy, withdrawn and doesn’t want comfort, sometimes for around 45 minutes. He also flaps his hands/runs and jumps when excited, has some sensory quirks and tends to focus most on cars, building towers and sorting colours.
He’s been referred to the Early Years specialist team because he’s non-verbal, so we’re getting professional input.

Did anyone’s autistic child have similarly strong eye contact, joint attention and social connection at this age? Does any of this sound familiar?

I’ve seen everyone screaming from the top of their lungs that “bilingualism doesn’t cause speech delays,” but what about when a toddler is showing signs of a speech delay in one language, then suddenly introduced heavily to a second language?

At 12 months my child had not said a word and his babbling was limited. So his pediatrician acted early and referred for a hearing test and speech therapy. He has met all other milestones listed on the ASQ.

We did the hearing test at 13 months and the hearing test showed that he couldn't hear clearly out of his left ear, but the right was normal. He also said his first word, "mama" around this time. He had a speech evaluation the same week using the PLS5 and scored a 95 which we were told was in the appropriate range for his age. Since we went with private practice, we were given the opportunity to bring him back for therapy once a week anyways.

I'm just curious if fluid and hearing difficulties in just one ear can cause a delay? Can someone explain it to me? I understand if his hearing was completely affected on both sides, but he can still head out of one ear? What did your speech therapy journey look like?

Thank you!