My Daughter Is 2 and Still Not Talking...

It sounds like you are off to a good start in getting her help. What she will also need is a developmental evaluation to see where she stands with her other milestones-- and that will help to pinpoint anything else she has going on such as Autism Spectrum Disorder. You can have your pediatrician refer you to a developmental specialist and once you get in the door there, the process will start and you will start getting her any early intervention that she needs. If it is indeed something on the Autism Spectrum than you have one thing going for you so far--the earlier the intervention starts, the better! And she is really young. There are also other several other things that a speech delay could indicate--autism is only one. If it were me, I'd be
googling and googling. The more you can teach yourself about what a speech delay/speech regression may mean the better. The best thing you can do to help your daughter is to educate yourself, be her advocate, get second and third opinions and never take anything anyone says at face value without validating it with your own research. Good luck!
P.S. And in the mean time, read to her, talk to her and interact with her as much as possible--it will be a good way to test how she responds while at the same time encouraging her to talk.

1 mom found this helpful

A.,

You should not accept a "maybe" with the word "autism" in the sentance. This morning, call your nearest Children's Hospital and make an appointment with an Developmental Pediatrician. This is not a regular pediatrician, this doctor will call in every kind of doctor and therapist that she needs and will put it all into one report for you and give you both a diagnosis and a treatment plan. You need both as soon as possible because early intervention is most effective.

What you should be most concerned with is that she has lost skills, which is something that should be evaluated in no uncertain terms, which is why your nerologist who left you hanging like that should be flogged in public. ECI is good, but beware. Public services are only required to make your daughter "functional" and that is not what any parent wants. You will always want private therapy to supplement public services.

Make the appintment today, and in the mean time, see a private speech therapist and start some private speech therapy. Go on with the MRI, but I can tell you from expeirence, you don't need this to get the diagnosis of autism, and the MRI is a CYA for the neruolgist to rule out any physical brain malformation or defect so that you can't sue him if he missed something.

I hope it all works out for you. When ever you have the option to get therapy or wait, always get the therapy...early is best.

M.

My twin boys are three and are both nonverbal, somewhere on the spectrum, but very mild in most ways. We have done a lot of testing, nutritional supplements, etc. We started with ECI, then our boys went to Callier for awhile and are now getting ABA and speech therapy from the Brent Woodall foundation. There is a great yahoo group that has helped me immensely (DFW-MAFEA). If you have any questions, want to talk or if I can help in any way let me know. It is a long road but there is a lot of hope and so much you can do to help your little girl.

My daughter is hearing impaired and has delayed speech as well. She signs some but really tries to be verbal (She is 7 now). She also has other medical issues. Anyway, I wanted to let you know about a group called Texas Parent to Parent. I am actually one of the team leaders for the DFW area. Texas Parent to Parent is a nonprofit organization created by parents to provide support & information to families of children with disabilities, chronic illness & special health care needs. One of the services we offer is a parent match. We can connect you to another parent of a child with similar disabilities or medical needs, or a similar concern to the one you might be facing. We have found great support and resources through TxP2P. I would love to help you get signed up if you are interested. Of course, this is all free! We are supported by grants and other private entities and are here just to help other families.

Here is the website: txp2p.org

S. Rosson

I assume that, after having her tubes put in, they followed up with a hearing test. If not, this should be done.

Check with your neurologist to see if an EEG should be done as well. Sometimes children with autism may be having mini-seizure seizure activity and these very brief black out periods can cause a child to miss out on a lot that is going on in her environment and this interferes with a lot of learning and interaction.

Now, a language delay and loss of language is definitely one of the symptoms of autism but you didn't indicate whether or not she is exhibiting any other autism-related symptoms. If the only symptom she really has is her communication regression/delay, I would not worry too much that she has autism. Just in case, here is a link that will provide you with how autism is diagnosed and description of the diagnostic testing available:

http://www.autism-pdd.net/checklist.html

If, after reading this, you are still concerned that your daughter has mild autism, let us know and I'm sure a number of us moms here can give you some suggestions on how you can help your daughter get the treatment that she needs.

God bless.

I am a member of a yahoo group - SID-DSI_AllAboutKids. It is all about autism and spd. Lots of advice there! It does sound like you are taking the right steps.

I have a child with autism. When he wasn't talking at 18 months I called in ECI, frankly they weren't helpful for me but have been to others I know. We also did tubes but that didn't help language for us. Did she regress after a vaccination or an illness? If it is autism the MRI isn't likely to help but you should do it to check it off your list. Also ask the neurolgist to look for chiari--they usually don't but it can be a big issue. Many people loved Callier so I'd recommed them too although we didn't go (we should have). Some developmental peds don't like to give labels that young but clearly signs are there. Does she point and reference you? How are her BMs? Does she have sensory issues?

When our now 15-year-old son was three months shy of three we had his speech evaluated.He was found to have the ability of a 13-month-old. He began speech therapy and was taught sign language. I asked the therapist, "Aren't you just giving him another reason to not talk?" and she said, "It will help him communicate." I was eight months pregnant at the time so I would sit in with them and learn, too. A couple of weeks later he came to me and said, "Mommy, oosh." and I said, "Juice?" and he said, "No, mommy, oosh." And I again asked, "Juice? Do you want juice?" and he said, "No, mommy, OOSH!" and showed me the sign for shoes. I said, "Shoes? Do you want your shoes on?" and I will NEVER forget the look of relief on his face and the happy smile as he nodded his head and said, "Yes, mommy, oosh!". I am now a preschool sign language teacher and interpreter at our church. I want to let you know that sign language gave him so much confidence and now he is a normal teenager and, for a young man, he is quite articulate and I wonder why I ever worried! Please try not to worry and just do all you can do help him. There's a great site: www.aslpro.com that will help you. Go to the baby signs section and learn some signs and teach them to your little one. You'll be surprised how quickly she will learn and use them. It's amazing to see how the Lord used this experience in our lives to reach other people. Learn, grow and see where this takes you! Blessings and good luck to your family! I will be praying for you! You are NOT in this alone!

My son has Autism. He is high functioning, but that took years of intervention on my part. Doctors will always tell you to take the wait and see approach. DON'T!! Act now.

You do not say if this is your only child or not. Mothers tend to just know what their children want, especially if there is only one.

Here is what I started doing:

1) Make them say what they want. This is painful but neccessary. It forces them to talk and start using their minds.

2) Take a picture book and point to the picture and consistantly ask what it is. Celebrate everytime they same something, it doesn't exactly have to be the right word. Positive re-enforcement.

3) Get her to a occupational therapist who specializes in children.

4) Start informing yourself about Autism and Pervasive Developement Disorder (PDD). Also begin now learning how your school system works with 504's and Individual Education Program (IEP). My experience is you lose a year by the time it gets in place. You are your childs best advocate.

There is no cure for Autism, there is only coping. It is like a door that closes a little bit at a time, until it shuts completely. We, parents, need to kick the door open daily. It's the best defense.

Hope This Helps!

I don't really have any advice, just want to give you a little encouragement. It sounds like you are doing everything right, just make sure she is able to communicate - keep up the sign language, it will help her to feel more comfortable b/c she is able to communicate with you. Also, there are some little computer/books that will allow her to punch in what she wants to say (it has pictures, words and the alphabet) and it will say it for her. A friend of ours has a child with an autism type disability and since they got the computer/book it has really helped him to communicate (they did not teach him sign language so it was very difficult for him to communicate until this point). The schools will even let him use it in the classroom. Good luck to you and may God bless you and your family.

I have twins that are almost 4. (B/G) My son needed speech therapy. He had tubes and he also has a sister who answers for him all the time.
We did ECI and I feel that it was a waste of time. I went to Callier Communications in Richardson and still do. It was the best thing for my son. We did a summer camp, expensive, but so worth it! It was SMILE program.
I also suggest calling Dr. Buchanan. She is a Pediatric Developmental DR in Dallas.
They can "prescribe" speech therapy of any thing else your child may need services in. Good Luck.

I had a similar situation with my daughter. I was terrified that she was possibly autistic because at age 2 1/2, she was saying only a handful of words, and no sentences. She had never been in a daycare/school setting, I had always either cared for her myself, or had a nanny. After consulting with her doctor (he suggested tubes, speech therapy), I decided that I wanted to try to put her in a school setting before I tried anything surgical/interventive.

She is now 3 years old and although there is still a significant delay, she is learning new words every day and building the confidence that she needs to continue grow with her verbal development. The results were immediate when I placed her in a classroom setting. She started talking within a few days.

We are still planning on contacting an early childhood speech interventionist to work with her, but she has made a lot of growth in the past few months.

Your daughter is still very young, and it is still quite early to be throwing around words like autism. Give your daughter a chance- build her confidence- only go there if you have to. Relax, she will come around.

I hope this helps!

Sign language!! My daughter can talk, but still signs words she can't say or she will sign when she's tired, cranky, mad. She can still communicate that way, but be a booger and not talk to me at the same time. Good luck to you!

Since your daughter is already getting the critical medical supervision and therapy she needs, I want to second the recommendation for baby sign language. All recent studies prove that sign language actually helps increase verbalization in babies and children. Anything that can help your daughter communicate will be a huge help to her. There are many books for sale at the bookstore for easy baby sign language, as well as some great DVDs. (You can start with the simple stuff via Baby Einstein Sign Language DVD and go from there.) The basics are very easy to learn (eat, drink, "I want", please, thank you, milk, etc.) If your daughter has a speech therapist, that person should also be able to start teaching the basics to you and your daughter. Best wishes.

Just check for any physical problem is there, if no problem, then do not worry, few children I know, talked only in their 3rd year

I'm in a very similar situation. My son is two (12-15-07) and his vocabulary is very limited. I recognize the need for speech therapy but I did not want to go through ECI...I used them for a little bit with my oldest and I did not feel they were exactly qualified so I chose to go private. My son is starting speech therapy today at Our Children's House Baylor (Allen location). After having the speech eval done I decided that I wanted to get his hearing checked b/c there were signs of him not hearing me. We saw the audiologist and the ENT yesterday and my son's hearing checked our perfectly normal and his ears are fluid free. However, the ENT said that what I'm describing to him sounds like Central Audiotory Response Disorder...which causes a speech delay and can be corrected by speech therapy. He's referred us to Callier for further testing and to see if they want to be more aggressive with the speech therapy. Our Children's House could only fit us in one day a week...even though the therapist recommended two days a week...I will be talking to her about that today. I've been told from several people that Callier is the best in Texas for therapy and what not so I'm looking forward to getting him in there for an evaluation.

Good luck! I would definitely seek medical attention outside of ECI. A development pedi is a great route as well. You can even call Callier and set up an appt. They handle speech/lang delay's and Austim. You can check out there website for more info.

I sounds like you are getting help already. Have you tried baby sign language? If the speech problem is related to a hearing problem that might help. If she is getting frustrated about not being able to communicate you you can also try putting pictures of common items on a board she can use to point at. Those suggestions won't fix the problem but may help with the day to day communication until other interventions help her get on track with talking.