I work with special needs children and have a few non verbal children that i work with. Each one of them is different and have their own little facial expressions and physical actions that let me know how they are feeling. They really are awesome people.

i wouldn’t judge anybody. that is rude. Most people are concerned with their own situation so probably not really being too judgy of others 🙂 Great reminder though!

In USA children with ASD/ Autism are diagnosed as young as 2 years old and start short sessions of speech therapy. (I know of one) At a later stage they may speak clearly but not in full sentences, but enough that you know what they are saying. Not being able to communicate makes it extremely difficult to find the problem. Drs. definitely need to be extremely well trained as the parent often has very little / no idea what the issue may be. Frustration is the biggest cause of behavioural problems with many of the children, simply because they can’t communicate. Some seem to be prone to earaches / infections. One child they eliminated dairy from his diet and he had very few earaches after that. It may actually be that the dairy was an allergy which triggered the earaches where others show definite hayfever symptoms. I myself have a similar ear problem caused mainly by pollens.

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  • • alextrichilo replied
    • 11 Mar 2016 , 8:47 pm

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  Thanks for sharing your insights june11 – children with a diagnosis of ASD definitely present with many of these traits.

My son did have mild speech problems when he first started school. He had a couple of speech therapy sessions and was all good after

My son struggled, I could not afford speech therapy back in the day (he is 24yo now), and did it all myself. He was considered high functioning autistic, but now most find him extremely easy to talk to (still quirky), but has a wonderful vocab

Hard for all kids with speech and language difficulties but when they don’t get the help they need it is awful to see these kids once they get to highschool and are sadly written off as being not very bright when many in fact are quite bright and just can’t convey it.

I would say people need to mind their own business. We should always be kind to others and we don’t know of others’ struggles.

My first thought when reading this was a child with autism – my child. Whilst he doesn’t relate to all of the points above, we have experienced a few of them. He is an awesome child who has so much to offer. He just needs time, patience, and a little extra assistance.

sadly it doesn’t jus happen to kids too.

This problem can be found in people of all ages – we should always be tolerant and accepting of others and not put them down – being friendly with those with a speech impairment helps no end, not matter what age.

I know a lady who has trouble communicating and sometimes has to really think about an answer before she speaks to you. She went for counselling for awhile and improved but every while she needs a little help and encouragement. It eventually came out that her Mum took the attitude “speak when YOU are spoken to” It has damaged the lady’s realtionship with relatives and friends before the reason was discovered.

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  • • mom93821 replied
    • 07 Feb 2016 , 8:52 am

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  Poor her, glad this attitude has changed!

Everyone should read this!

Early intervention work by Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists and Physiotherapists has an enormous impact on the educational and social outcomes of children.

As with PaulaR83 my little girl also has childhood apraxia of speech. She is now 6 almost 7 and doctors etc refused to believe she had a speech problem so was not diagnosed until 5 years of age. Intensive speech therapy and a lot of patience has helped her go from non verbal to speaking small sentences. Her teachers in prep and now grade 1 have been wonderful in helping her, and they go down to her level. She also has pictures to help when she’s struggling at school. I wish other parents would stop comparing their children to her, saying things like “oh they just grow out of it” or “it’s not a big problem”. Is very sad and no amount of explaining CAS seems to sink in. My daughter is highly intelligent and is at the top of her class. It makes you cry when others just don’t understand.

This is a great story but its not just kids. Anyone who may have trouble communicating just need that little bit of patience and understanding. It doesn’t take much to take a few minutes of your time to help others which makes them feel good inside.

Great article ! I have a kid like this. I love it how you write to “get down on their level, give them more time, smile kindly, acknowledge their efforts and treat all kids with respect”.

Great article Alex! As speech pathologists we see this every day but it’s great to bring the conversation out into the open! So many mums I work with comment on how hard it is to help others understand what’s going on for their child.

My daughter was diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech, a neurological motor planning disorder, at 2 and a half years old. She has been in speech therapy ever since. In kindy, in those first few weeks, she came home saying that other kids called her a baby as she talked like a baby and was the smallest one. The teachers and aides were wonderful, and straight away sorted it out with the little girls involved. During that year she also had a minor tongue tie operation as well as started gymnastics for her gross motor issues. Since then, she has gone from strength to strength. She will be turning six this year. With the right support and assistance, She has excelled at school, gymnastics and her speech therapy, and is currently on break. She has excellent cognitive ability and phonological awareness.
These kids, they take time, they need encouragement, and they want you to listen to them. These kids know the words, they struggle to make the words, so they will sound different, elongated, almost baby-ish. But look in their eyes and you will see a brilliant awareness yet hesitation. Will you understand me?

Time and patience are so important. I personally have a little chatterbox so have no had any issues but my godson really struggled for a while. In the end it was very much patience and perseverance and a little help from a speech pathologist and they got there!

This goes for all children really, what ever extra need it is that they have. We need to take more time to slow down and listen to our children in this busy world.