lindblum
3 girls + 1 on the way
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- Jul 3, 2010
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Hello,
I first posted in this section around September 2010 about my then 2yr old (she was 3 that November) who was not talking at all. After randomly seeing an autism related post I went through a few online checklists and found my daughter matched quite of the 'symptoms'.
The short update is that she is now talking very well and nearly as intelligently according to her age but her pronunciation is still a bit wobbly. She is 4 yrs old, soon to be 5 this November. Her pronunciation which has been really bad from the start has been improving rapidly in the last month, and people other than me can now understand what she is saying. She does not have autism, she is speech delayed. Looking back, I can see the reason she acted that way (such as pointing at things,banging her head, get angry or very aggressive) was probably because she couldn't communicate.
Since she was a little baby I've called her mummy's little angel. Last night when i put her to bed after her story and song, i told her, you are my little darling, my pumpkin, my sweetie pie. She then replied no mummy, i'm your 'ahn-jool'. That was the first time she has said angel.
Very Long update:
I had her seen by 2 speech experts or therapists and pretty much no follow up. Family kept telling me she was fine and just a late learner. At that point she understood and could follow instructions but was not making any effort to talk. She wasn't even saying mummy. If she wanted something she would take my hand to lead me to it and point to it.
I decided around march 2011 to actively 'help' her. At that point she was calling me by my family nickname (not mummy) and calling my husband by his real name.
I started with 'eyes, nose and mouth'. It was really difficult, she showed absolutely no interest and we both would end up upset and/or in tears. It didn't seem I was going to get help elsewhere so I pushed on and by the end of the week she could say and point to 'eye mow and no'.
We moved to our own house in June 2011 ( we were living with my family before). I continued trying to teach her new words and researched online any speech related exercises I could do with her, there aren't many resources at all so I thought up some to do. I tried to get her to learn maybe 5 words every 2 weeks. I picked everyday things around the house, things we used for eating, furniture and a few doing words. I downloaded photos of common things and got her to tell me what they were. She picked up names of things easier than doing/action words. I also made everything into a song, everything I did was either sung or narrated by me. Everything from cooking, cleaning and changing the baby I would talk about. I regularly asked her easy questions to get her to talk.
By her 4th birthday she was still pretty much mute. Up until then she would only say words when I asked her what they were. It was more of a game to her. The only thing she did ask for was water as 'water please' but pronounced as 'or-ter pease'.
She did know quite a few words but she did not use them to communicate. I have a video I took on her birthday. I surprised her with a doll, pushchair,cot set and she was really pleased. In the recording I am talking to her in a one sided conversation. I felt a bit of pain in my heart that she could not communicate back.
About 2 months later she started using two word sentences and 'asking' for things. This is about after 8 months of teaching her single words/names of objects. I know she was mimicking my questions and didn't really understand what stringing two words together meant or how to interchange them to ask for other things. Also her pronunciation was terrible. A lot of the times she would say things to me and I could not respond because I didn't know what she was saying. I found a way around it by using responses such as where is it, can you show me? That would help to connect the word she was using with something. She was also using 'easy' sounds for names of things she couldn't say. She would use the word 'api' for pencil, pocket and button. After several weeks of her doing this, I think it took about 4 days for each word, to teach her the real name. I would make her say the first syllable many times and then add the next one slowly. I made her say the word very slowly with me repeatedly. Whenever she started using a new word even if she said it wrong I didn't correct her pronunciation until after she was using it regularly.
At that time her little sister was 11 months and had just said her first word 'more' to ask for food. I remember thinking the baby would be able to talk properly before her.
Shortly after she began 3 word sentences and I noticed her language was still babyish. The only intelligent thing she could talk about was feelings (happy, sad and angry). At the nursery the other kids had more intelligent speech but she was sticking to saying things that she wanted and what she could see. As an example, she tried to take a nursery toy home and another little girl said to her that belongs to the nursery, you aren't allowed to take it home. I knew she understood because she put it back but I knew there was no way she could've said that to another kid.
She really liked Tinkerbell so i had been reading that book to her for bedtime for awhile. She wasn't interested in books at first so I picked something that I knew she liked. The trouble was that is was more suited for older kids and the pictures were hard to talk about. I browsed the bookshop and chose a book with easy familiar words and pictures she could recognise and talk about. She doesn't like change so it took a few nights to get her to accept the new book. Now she talks about what is happening in the book and even finishes the lines before I do.
This time last year my daughter couldn't talk. Now she can count to ten, she knows all her colours and she can tell me what she wants to have for lunch and that she is clean and therefore doesn't need a bath.
Most of the time it has been really slow and she got stuck on words and pronunciation. After she learnt to do two word sentences she has had many 'explosive' bursts of learning. I think maybe once she understood she could use speech to get what she wanted she started to use it more. We also used to make it into a big wow bravo hand clapping thing whenever she said something new to encourage her
About 5 weeks ago she crossed her feet over to make a heart shape and said 'mummy look, heart shape'. That was the first time she said something that was a thought from her head. Since then she has said many more 'discoveries'.
It feels so hopeless in the beginning and that nothing is working. I hope someone who was in my position or at any point in the process of their child learning to talk reads this and feels some encouragement from it.
I first posted in this section around September 2010 about my then 2yr old (she was 3 that November) who was not talking at all. After randomly seeing an autism related post I went through a few online checklists and found my daughter matched quite of the 'symptoms'.
The short update is that she is now talking very well and nearly as intelligently according to her age but her pronunciation is still a bit wobbly. She is 4 yrs old, soon to be 5 this November. Her pronunciation which has been really bad from the start has been improving rapidly in the last month, and people other than me can now understand what she is saying. She does not have autism, she is speech delayed. Looking back, I can see the reason she acted that way (such as pointing at things,banging her head, get angry or very aggressive) was probably because she couldn't communicate.
Since she was a little baby I've called her mummy's little angel. Last night when i put her to bed after her story and song, i told her, you are my little darling, my pumpkin, my sweetie pie. She then replied no mummy, i'm your 'ahn-jool'. That was the first time she has said angel.
Very Long update:
I had her seen by 2 speech experts or therapists and pretty much no follow up. Family kept telling me she was fine and just a late learner. At that point she understood and could follow instructions but was not making any effort to talk. She wasn't even saying mummy. If she wanted something she would take my hand to lead me to it and point to it.
I decided around march 2011 to actively 'help' her. At that point she was calling me by my family nickname (not mummy) and calling my husband by his real name.
I started with 'eyes, nose and mouth'. It was really difficult, she showed absolutely no interest and we both would end up upset and/or in tears. It didn't seem I was going to get help elsewhere so I pushed on and by the end of the week she could say and point to 'eye mow and no'.
We moved to our own house in June 2011 ( we were living with my family before). I continued trying to teach her new words and researched online any speech related exercises I could do with her, there aren't many resources at all so I thought up some to do. I tried to get her to learn maybe 5 words every 2 weeks. I picked everyday things around the house, things we used for eating, furniture and a few doing words. I downloaded photos of common things and got her to tell me what they were. She picked up names of things easier than doing/action words. I also made everything into a song, everything I did was either sung or narrated by me. Everything from cooking, cleaning and changing the baby I would talk about. I regularly asked her easy questions to get her to talk.
By her 4th birthday she was still pretty much mute. Up until then she would only say words when I asked her what they were. It was more of a game to her. The only thing she did ask for was water as 'water please' but pronounced as 'or-ter pease'.
She did know quite a few words but she did not use them to communicate. I have a video I took on her birthday. I surprised her with a doll, pushchair,cot set and she was really pleased. In the recording I am talking to her in a one sided conversation. I felt a bit of pain in my heart that she could not communicate back.
About 2 months later she started using two word sentences and 'asking' for things. This is about after 8 months of teaching her single words/names of objects. I know she was mimicking my questions and didn't really understand what stringing two words together meant or how to interchange them to ask for other things. Also her pronunciation was terrible. A lot of the times she would say things to me and I could not respond because I didn't know what she was saying. I found a way around it by using responses such as where is it, can you show me? That would help to connect the word she was using with something. She was also using 'easy' sounds for names of things she couldn't say. She would use the word 'api' for pencil, pocket and button. After several weeks of her doing this, I think it took about 4 days for each word, to teach her the real name. I would make her say the first syllable many times and then add the next one slowly. I made her say the word very slowly with me repeatedly. Whenever she started using a new word even if she said it wrong I didn't correct her pronunciation until after she was using it regularly.
At that time her little sister was 11 months and had just said her first word 'more' to ask for food. I remember thinking the baby would be able to talk properly before her.
Shortly after she began 3 word sentences and I noticed her language was still babyish. The only intelligent thing she could talk about was feelings (happy, sad and angry). At the nursery the other kids had more intelligent speech but she was sticking to saying things that she wanted and what she could see. As an example, she tried to take a nursery toy home and another little girl said to her that belongs to the nursery, you aren't allowed to take it home. I knew she understood because she put it back but I knew there was no way she could've said that to another kid.
She really liked Tinkerbell so i had been reading that book to her for bedtime for awhile. She wasn't interested in books at first so I picked something that I knew she liked. The trouble was that is was more suited for older kids and the pictures were hard to talk about. I browsed the bookshop and chose a book with easy familiar words and pictures she could recognise and talk about. She doesn't like change so it took a few nights to get her to accept the new book. Now she talks about what is happening in the book and even finishes the lines before I do.
This time last year my daughter couldn't talk. Now she can count to ten, she knows all her colours and she can tell me what she wants to have for lunch and that she is clean and therefore doesn't need a bath.
Most of the time it has been really slow and she got stuck on words and pronunciation. After she learnt to do two word sentences she has had many 'explosive' bursts of learning. I think maybe once she understood she could use speech to get what she wanted she started to use it more. We also used to make it into a big wow bravo hand clapping thing whenever she said something new to encourage her
About 5 weeks ago she crossed her feet over to make a heart shape and said 'mummy look, heart shape'. That was the first time she said something that was a thought from her head. Since then she has said many more 'discoveries'.
It feels so hopeless in the beginning and that nothing is working. I hope someone who was in my position or at any point in the process of their child learning to talk reads this and feels some encouragement from it.
