Surely an oldy but goody.....
My son, 2.8 months....He says the numbers 1-20 all the time, he says all shapes-and I mean all shapes. He knows and says all his letters and their sounds, he also says the common words related to those letter/sounds(C, ccc cat or H, hhh hat, I iii igloo), he sings over a dozen songs in autistic dialect recognizable mainly by tune. And he may say the common sayings I say, 'its okay', 'alright', 'watch out'.
That being said, not any of it is functional, so I consider him not talking or non verbal. Very often people say 'oh, that is so great' or 'my kid can't do that', and I try to explain that he can't hand me a ball or hand me anything or tell me he is hungry or thirsty or cold or anything so its really useless at this point.
Verbal or non verbal?????????????????
I'd say verbal for sure, whether it's functional or not he's verbal. I'd say verbal with no functional speech. Sharlet has around 50 labeling words now, but no functional speech at all so thats what I say.
verbal
I've been told that if they are able to speak, as in they have used words. then that is a good indicator that they will at some later date speak more functionally.
I'm pretty sure even just having echolalia is considered being verbal.
I could be wrong.
Tom is definitely verbal, but he struggles with understanding spoken language and with using language to communicate. He's actually starting to drop the few words he used functionally and replace them just with the Makaton, but as he's using more signs as well then we're pleased he is communicating with us. The other day he signed "mummy, Tom, Jacob, train", when we were on a train. He may decide to speak more in a while, he's still saying words, just not as much.Language impaired. My son at that age could also recognize almost all the letters and shapes, between 4 and 5 started to pick up some functional language, and now at 7 still has only the functional language, just a little more than before. But I cannot hold a conversation with him, he cannot tell me how his day was at school, or how he is feeling. In his IEP school records they have him diagnosed as autistic and language impaired. I think it is a better explanation than verbal or non-verbal when explaining to others.In the long run, the ONLY thing that matters is a person's ability to communicate functionally. Whether that's with spoken language, assistive deviceds, PEC, sign language -- whatever. The IMPORTANT thing is for your child to learn to take what is inside HIS mind and convey that thought to someone else in a meaningful way. Whatever helps your child do this is what you should use. Your child is VERY young. Even NT kids only begin really conveying thoughts at about age 2. My guess is that your child will eventually be verbal in a meaningful way. However, right now you MUST use interventions that will show him that words are not just things but TOOLS. PECS has a long track record of helping ASD kids do that. There is a ton of research that PECS (and sign language and other communication supports) never stop kids from speaking, but in fact encourage the eventual use of verbal communication if the child is capable of that.
My son is 16, so I've been around long enough to have seen LOTS of ASD kids develop. I've seen no ASD kids who were number or letter obsessed at age 2 or 3 end up nonverbal. However, it can take a long time to get them talking, so speech/language intervention NOW is absolutely critical. I'd ask for PECs, but I'd also take the advice of a good therapists who knows your son and how he learns. Don't dispair. Even the lower functioning ASD teens I know communicate functionally using speech. Of course, there are son who never develop language, but those kids are few. It used to be thought that kids with autism generally didn't become verbal. But IMHO that was due to the low expectations of the past. Parent of very young ASD kids these days are VERY lucky in that expectations are greater and interventions are more effective.