15 month old not speaking or gesturing
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31-03-2023 3:36pm#1
Hi
We are very concerned for our 15 month old daughter.
The positives are she does say "baba" and sometimes "dada" but I don't feel like she calling for me. She started clapping but its infrequent and not something she mimics. She doesn't mimic us at all, has never called for us and doesn't like to be held.
She crawls around and walks in her cot while holding onto the cot so no walking unaided yet.
So she doesn't really display a social need or curiosity of others. However, I don't see any stimmimg, no issues sleeping and not fixated on any one toy etc.
We had a checkup and she has been referred to speech and language therapy. I suppose I'm wondering is it autism or just a development delay in multiple areas?
I understand speech delay is not uncommon but for children that speak late, is it possible that they also lack any gesturing aswell and then develop ok?
Has anybody else experienced the above and find it not autism and child just developed late?
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I think they are all different. Ours was the same at that age we were getting worried. Only started saying mama and dada at about 18 months. Age 9 and we cant shut her up now. The cheek is unbelievable :)
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I would have thought 15months was very early to be referring for speech and language therapy but what do I know really! I have small children in extended family, two 20mth olds and one has a good few words, other not so much. Both though know exactly what you are saying to them as in go get your shoes and they will get them. 15mths is young though, even on the walking front, any day now they will take off most likely!
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Thanks would you mind clarifying if you recall was your child gesturing at all at 18 months even if not talking?
I feel like on lack of interest in people is what is contributing to speech delay and is a red flag for autism but like I mentioned not displaying some of the other serious flags for autism so we quite confused.
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I cant remember the timelines because they are all a blur now, but try this. Put a laptop in front of her and put something like toy story on it.
Cant remember what age but mine was fascinated by that when young. Would be over looking at it and then started pressing the buttons on the laptop when she realized they could be pressed. But i can honetly remember the ages it all happened. Even walking. Wouldnt walk and all and one day just got up and walked over to me.
On a swing in the park. Put her in the swing and pull her towards you and let her go saying whhheeeee. See what happens.
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Have they another sibling?
My first lad was doing alot of interacting by 15months, and had Dada and Mama off and knew we would respond to that rather than wailing, he was also trying to say other words. By 18months he had a good few words, much to the suprise of most of my family.
My second lad however, was aboslutely horizontal with speaking etc. He was keen to get going walking but speech etc was delayed till practically 2, played about with himself etc, now he is 2.5 and he is falling down with words and wont shut up. I think it was alot to do with the fact his brother did everythign for him
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My eldest was similar. Only started talking at 3, ended up being an average child.
Youngest however had some language, could sing full songs and loved playing with others, until suddenly at 2.5 she started hand flapping, making sounds, eye contact disappeared as well as the language (ability to sing songs remained). Sleep and behavior turned into a nightmare (torture to put to bed by 11pm only to be woken up by her at 3am and not go back to bed, hated pre-school, constant meltdowns, hitting other kids, etc...you couldn't be more than 1m away from her in the playground in case she does something to someone, toilet training - forget about it, attached to her milk bottle and needing it any time she'd be stressed, even at the age of 4!).
Now having the diagnosis and trying to think if there was anything unusual before she was 2.5 and no, there wasn't. I've videos recorded of her turning head when called when she was 1.5, happily running to siblings to play. When we went to see pediatrician when she was nearly 3, first thing he asked if we checked her hearing (she wasn't reacting to any sounds whatsoever or her name - completely in her own world). Yet at 15 months there was nothing to indicate this would happen.
I think 15 months is simply too young but it's good to be aware of things and keep an eye on them. Btw, mine is 7 now and is the most gentle loving soul, so careful with other children now, I never thought it would happen. Toilet trained, sleeps well, constantly seeks attention of others, you whisper her name and she is staring right at you now and the only two issues are speech (still very poor but we are steadily making progress) and attention span (I think she has ADHD as well hence issues with speech as she just cannot concentrate and doesn't feel the need to be honest at the moment as she is happy as it is). With the right support and in a suitable for their needs environment autistic kids can make amazing progress.
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Sorry to hijack the thread but Glen123 - what kind of therapy did you get for your daughter, or what kind of other supports did she have that has enabled her to make such progress? I assume she is going to speech therapy? Are you going privately? Did the speech therapist tailor the therapy to take into account your daughter's autism? Any other therapies you would recommend?
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Everything we've done to date we have done privately. I got her VHI Company Level 2 Extra plan (37eur pm) which covers 75% of OT and S&L costs (there is no waiting time or pre-existing as these are classed as Day to day expenses - you can start claiming the minute you sign up). We are registered with disability services but in the 4 years we are with them all I got was a list of things to do and a few courses for myself. Btw, you don't need to be insured yourself - only your child can have a policy, you just need to ring them as you cannot do it online.
Diagnosis was also done privately as I had no willpower to fight the system - I wanted to concentrate on my daughter asap. So first we found OT who worked with us for a year and who went to pre school to observe our daughter, told us we need a different environment for her with people who have ASD training and know exactly what to do (it was a lovely pre-school but she hated it there and they were trying to do anything she demanded to keep her happy which isn't the best way with ASD kids...I cannot blame the workers because at the time as a parent I was ready to give her anything myself to just calm her down). Luckily our OT was aware of various childcare services locally and pointed us in the direction of another pre-school right on our doorstep (I never thought there was a pre-school there as it's a large wooded area and you cannot see from the road what's there - I thought it was just a farm of some sort). All workers in that pre-school had training to work with ASD kids (owner ensured this) so the first day we went in, it was the first time in 2 years my child went into the pre-school setting without a meltdown. The fact that it was all green around and a lot of open space made a difference, I think. There were still days when she would get overloaded and would have a meltdown and we had to collect her early but this was only towards the end of the session when she just had too much to process. The guys that worked with her set the boundaries straight away, introduced gentle but firm discipline and she gave in. We followed the same at home to the best of our ability and she slowly started being more cooperative, started behaving better, I started being able to go to the shops with her without having to worry that I'd have to leave shopping and drag away a screaming and kicking child. All I can say that the minute she ended up in the place she liked, she started making progress straight away. We got her an extra year in that pre-school so that helped too. Then we got a place in the local ASD unit, we went for a visit and we nearly ended up where we started - she saw the building, started screaming and refused to even go inside (she has a thing that if she doesn't like smth the first time, it's unlikely she'd tolerate it next time). We knew straight away this wasn't going to work. Luckily for us again we learnt about Steiner primary school not far from us where they spend at least 2 days learning outside doing things with their hands, learning about nature. She loved it instantly and is doing really well there as she gets a lot of movement breaks, her SNA is excellent.
We started S&L last summer as she wouldn't have cooperated before that (1st visit lasted 10min as she was having none of it because it was something new and something she didn't expect). 2nd visit lasted full 30min and now she absolutely loves going to the "doctor" as we call it. We only do 30min every 2 weeks because her attention span is still very short but we are getting sentences now when she asks for things instead of single words. There is still no dialogue as such but when I ask her something, she repeats my sentence after me as in trying to reply to me this way. The S&L tailored the program to the way she learns the language and not to overload her with information.
I think in our case the main driver to progress was putting her in the environment she enjoyed, yet standing our ground when she'd be doing the meltdown to get her way. It's hard not to give in but I found it gets easier and she also doesn't bother doing it knowing it won't work anyway.
Sorry if none of the above is useful but this is what we have done so far and it seems to be working for us.
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I know this thread is a couple of months old, but thought I'd chip in with some observations based on my own experience, bearing in mind that all children are different.
My youngest is 3 and a half now. When he was 10 months or so he started walking, and had started babbling, and would react when called. It never progressed though, and he never did clapping, waving, pointing, stopped babbling, stopped responding to his name, and by the time he was 15 months or so we knew it likely wasn't just a small delay in these things (which can happen, but all the boxes were ticked her pretty much). By the time he was 18-20 months when nothing changed we started getting information on assessments and so on, and via a private assessment aged just over 2 was diagnosed with autism. At that point there wasn't a single word that we said that I believed he responded to or understood, but he understood visual cues, such as showing him his shoes, a bowl or plate for a specific meal and so on. He also had started to take us to things that he wanted.
Fast forward to now at 3 and a half, and he still doesn't speak, but he is determined when he wants something, whether that is by bringing us to what he wants, putting our hand to something, putting his finger on our mouth to sing, bringing us to a specific place to play a certain game he remembers us doing with him in that spot, or even grabbing a chair, pulling it to where he wants, climbing up on that (and often the kitchen counter) to physically grab what he wants. If we say the alphabet or numbers 1-10 he can point to the right one when jumbled up, and he loves us singing, counting and so on. He is also proficient at playing songs on a tablet. He never uses sound as a means of communication, not even a grunt when he wants anything. He does of course squeal, and laugh and cry, but never as a means of communication (unless you count expressing frustration as communication).
He does have a device to aid his communication (app on an ipad provided by enable Ireland or the HSE, I can't remember) but he doesn't use it in the way it's intended yet. He also attends a local ASD pre school (which we know we are lucky to have nearby). He can understand many of the words we say now, but not sentences, or at least he doesn't let on that he understands them! He has developed in a lot of ways in the last 12 months especially, but still has major communication difficulties, no interest in playing with others unless it's a counting/running/jumping game with one of the family. His sleep is not too bad, although I still have to stay with him every night (he will almost never go to sleep for my wife, annoyingly enough) until he goes to sleep stroking his hand, and that can take some time. Unless absolutely wrecked though, he will not go asleep otherwise, and won't stay in his room. He is generally a happy child, and regularly enough attends SLT and Occ therapy (private obviously as it'll be a while yet before public services are available to him) so it's a slow process, and while we have no idea where we'll end up with it all, but all you can do is look for the right things to do for your child within the services available in your area, and unfortunately your means. We are lucky enough to have 75% coverage for his therapies on a health plan too as otherwise we'd be broke from it, but the DCA helps in that regard too.
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Saying "Mama" is much harder for a baby to say than "Dada".
Is she an only child? If there is a parent & toddler group you could attend, she might gain from seeing others asking and receiving.
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