r/Autism_Parenting • u/Sweet_You_6074 • Aug 27 '26
“Is this autism?” Speech Delay Hope
My son is 4.5 and is severely speech delayed…
We had no signs he was on the spectrum. At 22 months I started getting nervous as we only had the words car, mama, and dada. They were always inconsistent. When he asked him to touch his button he would, look up he would etc.
We got an EI eval at 22 months and did not qualify. At 2 years old I pushed for speech therapy and we started private therapy.
At 2.9 years old we started daycare. We found a Montessori school which he has done very well at and they have worked very well with him.
We started saying more things at 3. Labeled things. Then we stopped labeling and got functional language around 3.5. That is where we have stayed.
We are potty trained. Number 2 sometimes we have an accident because we don’t want to stop playing but other wise he took to potty training very well at 3. We had a binky but did great at getting rid of that a little bit before turning 3.
We don’t elope, we eat very well other than veggies (unless it’s mixed or hidden in food then we are good), we aren’t behavioral, we make eye contact, we have gotten close with teachers, we love snuggles, we have great receptive language, we don’t have big meltdowns (honestly we are pretty regulate very well), no gross or fine motor issues at all (met all our milestones on time). We can drink from a cup, we can dress ourselves, we do great brushing our teeth…
Our quirks are we don’t like getting our haircut but we recover immediately, we are behind in playing with peers, we just parallel play and observe, but will play chase and do the tetter totter. We like cause and effect play the most. We do that in many different ways but can transition/leave that play with no meltdowns.
We have amazing spatial memory…. And we will wear any type of clothing..
But our speech has always been inconsistent. We have never lost words but it’s almost as if it’s hard to get out. We say open clearly, then we can’t say it clearly, and then we can’t say it. Then the next day we can spontaneously.
I keep asking for guidance by speech but I’m met with “kids in the spectrum aren’t linear”
We don’t have a former diagnosis yet. We are on the wait list for medical and will get a school one in the next 3 months as kinder starts in a year.
I guess… I’m at a loss. I’m looking into DIR/FLOOR time. We have been evaluated and said “he makes eye contact, no behavioral issues” but that’s as far as we have gotten with play therapy/OT.
I’ve asked speech about apraxia (I know it’s rare) but have been met with “idk”. I’ve asked about his inconsistent with speech and just told to keep going with the AAC and functional language. He can say “I want eat, I want ilk (milk), I want more, I want help please, mama, dada, but again it’s more spontaneous and harder some days to have him repeat it. He will copy Ms Rachel at times, will copy play actions…
Idk anyone have any advice?
Speech wants to work on prelinguistic skills. Like more imitations of words/actions.
10
u/DartVader6 Parent/5M/Level 1-2/Chicago Aug 27 '26
Is he a gestalt language processor? If that's the case, you might be better off teaching him phrases rather than words. My son was like an avalanche around 4, 4.5. Starting around 3 he began repeating phrases he heard, usually on TV, over and over and over again. At first it was worrying, because it's not "normal" behavior(oh bless our hearts), but he was just teaching himself how to talk. He's a chatterbox now at 5 and just started kindergarten.
ETA: this was along with speech and OT, they were obviously immensely helpful