My 3-year-old daughter only says a handful of words. How can i help her?

ash · February 2017

This discussion was created from comments split from: I'm Chris, I specialise in working with children with autism, asperger's and learning disabilities.

ash · February 2017

Hi, i have two boyx with autism and my daughter who is 3 only says a handful of words, she cant answer any simple questions, she usually repeats what she has heard.
The salt services in my area are terrible still waiting to be seen past 16 weeks. What can i do to help her?

kieran · February 2017

Hi, I have only just joined this forum & have a 12 year old son with autism & a global developmental delay. I remember him not saying any words at all at that age & his first words were bye bye when he was about 4. I found using visual methods of communicating through play really helped, maybe look on line for printable PECS, which you could start by introducing pictures as a way for her to communicate. My son now has a large vocabulary even though it can sometimes be very repetitive & language is used out of context, I was told by professionals he may never have talked & he communicates amazingly well with a great sense of humour too. Just trust your gut instincts as a mum & do what works best for your daughter, she will get there. Hope this helps x

Sam_Alumni · February 2017

@LondonSpeechTherapy can you help?

LondonSpeechTherapy · February 2017

Apologies all I've been working away and barely had chance to eat / sleep. I'm now back and raring to go!

Dear @Ash - my recommendation is that you speak to your Health Visitor and your GP to express your concerns that you are still waiting. Are their any Afasic groups running in your local area? Does your daughter access Nursery / play group currently?

Dear @kieran - thank you for answering in my absence. I totally agree that for some children PECS can work really well. The most important thing I have learnt from working as an SLT is it's not just about the means of communication (e.g. voice; PECS; apps) but the reason as to why a child communicates. We adults need to make sure we provide children lots and lots of opportunities to communicate. Attention Autism is a fantastic approach!

ash · February 2017

Hi, thank you Kieran and Sam. I used to use PECS with my boys and will definitely look into this for her. Sam, my daughter does attend a pre school three days a week .
I do actually play with her and take her park quite a bit. I attended a SALT parent workshop and use some of their strategies such as giving her 5 min special time each day and only use specific words to communicate with her and limit my speech. I sometimes comment too. I give her choices and use loads of repetition. I just havent seen much progression in 6 months.
I will be contacting afasic to see if they can help but im so frustrated as still waiting to be seen by SALT therapist.

Abnoba · February 2017

This doc on BBC iplayer: Storyville - Life, Animated about an autistic boy may be of interest to you.

ash · March 2017

Thanks, will have a look

My 3-year-old daughter only says a handful of words. How can i help her?

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