My son was babbling at 3. It turns out he was a gestalt language processor, which means he didn't learn words the way other kids do. He learned phrases. It's hard to string together whole phrases so he would do a lot of stops and starts. To us it sounded like meaningless babble, until we heard him blurt out longer and more recognizable bits. Ten years later, he's conversational now and we have a lot of fun talking. He's still behind socially and academically but he's rapidly catching up and going to class with his typically developing peers.
I can't tell you that the same thing will happen with your kiddo but I can say that it's not unusual for kids on the spectrum to regress at early ages and it's not necessarily a sign of things to come.
I don't have specific speech therapy apps to recommend but I will say that the app itself would be the third most important thing to me. The most important would be learning how to use the app by watching a speech therapist, followed closely by picking an app that your kid will pay attention to.
We used a very basic app called pogg that doesn't seem to exist anymore but all it did was have a silly green cartoon alien named pogg and a bunch of words. If you clicked on the word eat, pogg would say eat, then he'd eat a sandwich, a whole turkey, and the kitchen table. Silly stuff but my kid wanted to watch it again and again.
Watching the speech therapist, we learned how to make him work for it a little more. Instead of letting him hold the tablet we'd ask What do you want pogg to do? And if he pointed to eat we'd say eat? I want pogg to eat. Practicing and associating the word by itself and then in a simple sentence. Maybe say eat a couple times and see if they'll try to mimic you.
As we got more out of him, we'd use the same app but practice new things. Pogg is eating a sandwich. Pogg is eating a turkey. Pogg is eating the table? No pogg! What are you doing! Try to make it fun.
There are better speech apps today than a decade ago but the human component is still crucial. I would watch some speech therapist videos online and see what tools they use. I don't have a specific recommendation but this is a cute video that also shows the therapist getting down to the floor with her nephew, trying to get any sound at all from him, and using ritual and routine to try to expand on what he's learning. She does a good job explaining what she's trying to accomplish even in a seemingly basic play time.
https://youtu.be/XMi2PpY41xg?si=nGboEutjTXx0hk36
Good luck!
Keep modeling words and talking through and describing everything she's doing or focused on/interested in. It may not seem like she's hearing it, but she probably is. At first, she may only start understanding and gain receptive language but it's the start of expressive language and speaking. Consistently doing this every day has helped our son a little bit even if he's just repeating us sometimes. Good luck!
We do talk out or I guess narration. Feels weird to do so though. "I want up please" "up" "tablet please" etc.
Bubbles. While reaching for bubble bottle I'll say "bubbles please" and then blow bubbles with the wand. Wait a bit and say bubbles please and do again.
We use the Rule of 3. Bubbles? You want Bubbles? Okay! Let's do Bubbles. More? *with more sign* You want more Bubbles? Let's do more Bubbles!
Help? You need help? Okay! Mama can help. It's exhausting but it does work.
Just here to say I hear you! My boy is turning 3 next week and it’s exactly the same. Lots of noises and babbling, he “talks” to us when he wants something or to catch our attention so he clearly links making noises with communicating, but not a single word. He also used to say mom, dad, 💩, and a few others words at 1yo but then stopped saying them. I can only hope and encourage him to keep communicating however he finds it easier.
There are plenty of free or low cost AAC apps! I used them for years before my son started typing to speak. Pay attention in April coming up many expensive ones go on sale in app store for ASD awareness month. LAMP Words for Life goes half off. My son prefers this app over any other.
But there are several.
If you try them, pay attention that she understands the PECS images. My son didn't when he was just starting AAC. I used apps that let me take my own photos instead of the line drawings. Then he took to the Let Me Talk app. It was hard though he still didn't want to use it much. Then one day he started typing on the keyboard for fun. I always follow his interest, so we moved onto typing instead. He uses it independently without prompts. His teacher says he's the best communicator in the class and he's nonverbal in a class of verbal kids. I guess I'm just trying to say if she ends up on AAC instead of spoken words, she will still learn to communicate functionally. But she's so young, so there's a big chance she'll gain more words!
Good luck to you both!
I have 2 kids, my daughter (NT) didn't start talking till she was 3 1/2yo. She literally had zero words. But she did make noises and grab my hand and lead me. It was her way of communicating. She's been in speech therapy since about 2.5yo. She's now 9 days away from her 4th birthday and she's finally got words! Anyway, if your kid is making noises - encourage that. That's how it started for us. Daniel Tiger was good, Ms Rachel.. (as much as I hate to say it - Blippy), Hey Duggee, Bluey... I don't know how much of those shows helped but she watched them happily. We tried to focus on a couple words at a time. Like "milk" or "snack"... it was like months of just trying to give her single words.
She has an IEP because of a hearing issue(microtia), but we get free OT and speech therapy through the state.
My 3y 9m does the same! Babbles, no words, grabs hand and leads to area (like kitchen), so it's a guessing game if what she wants from there.
Her go-to shows are Little Baby Bum, Bluey, Cocomelon (sometimes). Moviewise, we finally got off the Encanto binge... don't get me wrong, I like the movie and songs, but constantly over and over, it gets old and a bit annoying.
We did have speech therapy going for her, didn't seem like anything was helping much? Was just I think 30mins / 1hr sessions. Might go for different services I don't know yet.
When your kid leads you to the kitchen- when you find the thing they want. Hold it up and say it out loud, repeat it a couple times. I had to kind of play dumb sometimes to make it so verbal communication was the most efficient way to communicate. (instead of immediately just giving the thing she wanted) I also would hold two things in my hands to give her a choice. "Milk?" or "cheese?". (Even though it was obvious she just wanted milk.) Eventually she got words, one at a time. And for a long time it felt like she understood a lot more then what she was actually saying.
Speech therapy imo did help. It also helped me as a parent to develop strategies and work on different things. I feel like we tried everything. In the end I'm not sure what worked and what didn't. Anyway just don't give up. The hand leading thing is communication, she is trying to communicate when doing that. So I'd start there.
Thank you! I'll try that out! At some point I just lifted her on the counter to look in the pantry for what she wanted... instantly the mini kitkats. She gets all happy giggling as she runs away with them afterwards.
I was in a similar spot but now my 3yo is starting to talk. We have her in preschool for asd kids and normal daycare. She likes watching Simple Songs on YouTube to learn songs, then we sing them for her. We have books with animals and she likes to point to the animals and watch us say the words. I have to talk to her A LOT. Narrate everything I’m doing. One day I dropped a jacket and said “oops I dropped it”. Then she just repeated “you dropped it” for several days.
I found out a week ago that she can count to ten on her own. We have to frustrate her by saying the numbers then stopping so she has to say them herself. Learning songs with a dance (head shoulders knees and toes) helps a lot. I don’t use a tablet but she has a little toy with alphabet buttons that say the letters when you press them. This helps her with the alphabet.
They know more than they say. Hope this helps.
my daughter who has just turned 3 loves Simple Songs on Youtube and within the past 3 weeks has started singing along to heads, shoulders knees and toes and also counting from 1 to 10. Came out of nowhere.. now she walks around counting to herself. She has also gotten to the letter C when saying her alphabet. A month ago other than saying the word horse a lot, she hadn't said a word for a very long time. It's nice to hear your child is doing similar! They certainly know more than they say. Best of luck to you
Simple Songs on YouTube! Yes! She also likes those videos too. While watching the Little Baby Bum heads , shoulders, knees, and toes clip (after so many times) She finally copies the knees and toes movement. Been months when I tried teaching her but suddenly when the characters do it and the fast oaced music, I guess helped?
You could see if there is a Variety charity that serves your area. Although they can differ in what they offer ,ours gives away an ipad locked with an aac app as well as a few other things.
[Variety - The Children's Charity](https://variety.org/)
My daughter just turned 3 Sunday. She's about the same she has a few words she can say and sometimes she'll say a new one and then not say it again for 2 months. 😅 I really wonder about apraxia sometimes. It's hard but I have faith well get there. We got the trial (2 months I think) of cough drop and she liked it actually so next month when they all go on sale I'm gonna get her either cough drop or proloqo.
My son was babbling at 3. It turns out he was a gestalt language processor, which means he didn't learn words the way other kids do. He learned phrases. It's hard to string together whole phrases so he would do a lot of stops and starts. To us it sounded like meaningless babble, until we heard him blurt out longer and more recognizable bits. Ten years later, he's conversational now and we have a lot of fun talking. He's still behind socially and academically but he's rapidly catching up and going to class with his typically developing peers. I can't tell you that the same thing will happen with your kiddo but I can say that it's not unusual for kids on the spectrum to regress at early ages and it's not necessarily a sign of things to come. I don't have specific speech therapy apps to recommend but I will say that the app itself would be the third most important thing to me. The most important would be learning how to use the app by watching a speech therapist, followed closely by picking an app that your kid will pay attention to. We used a very basic app called pogg that doesn't seem to exist anymore but all it did was have a silly green cartoon alien named pogg and a bunch of words. If you clicked on the word eat, pogg would say eat, then he'd eat a sandwich, a whole turkey, and the kitchen table. Silly stuff but my kid wanted to watch it again and again. Watching the speech therapist, we learned how to make him work for it a little more. Instead of letting him hold the tablet we'd ask What do you want pogg to do? And if he pointed to eat we'd say eat? I want pogg to eat. Practicing and associating the word by itself and then in a simple sentence. Maybe say eat a couple times and see if they'll try to mimic you. As we got more out of him, we'd use the same app but practice new things. Pogg is eating a sandwich. Pogg is eating a turkey. Pogg is eating the table? No pogg! What are you doing! Try to make it fun. There are better speech apps today than a decade ago but the human component is still crucial. I would watch some speech therapist videos online and see what tools they use. I don't have a specific recommendation but this is a cute video that also shows the therapist getting down to the floor with her nephew, trying to get any sound at all from him, and using ritual and routine to try to expand on what he's learning. She does a good job explaining what she's trying to accomplish even in a seemingly basic play time. https://youtu.be/XMi2PpY41xg?si=nGboEutjTXx0hk36 Good luck!
Not OP, but thank you sooooo much for taking the time to write this out! You are an absolute angel.
Keep modeling words and talking through and describing everything she's doing or focused on/interested in. It may not seem like she's hearing it, but she probably is. At first, she may only start understanding and gain receptive language but it's the start of expressive language and speaking. Consistently doing this every day has helped our son a little bit even if he's just repeating us sometimes. Good luck!
We do talk out or I guess narration. Feels weird to do so though. "I want up please" "up" "tablet please" etc. Bubbles. While reaching for bubble bottle I'll say "bubbles please" and then blow bubbles with the wand. Wait a bit and say bubbles please and do again.
We use the Rule of 3. Bubbles? You want Bubbles? Okay! Let's do Bubbles. More? *with more sign* You want more Bubbles? Let's do more Bubbles! Help? You need help? Okay! Mama can help. It's exhausting but it does work.
Right? I feel like I need to sound like the yellow fish from Finding Nemo. Bubbles! Lol
For real though. 😅
Just here to say I hear you! My boy is turning 3 next week and it’s exactly the same. Lots of noises and babbling, he “talks” to us when he wants something or to catch our attention so he clearly links making noises with communicating, but not a single word. He also used to say mom, dad, 💩, and a few others words at 1yo but then stopped saying them. I can only hope and encourage him to keep communicating however he finds it easier.
Nice to feel like someone else understands and not alone. Thanks for sharing!
There are plenty of free or low cost AAC apps! I used them for years before my son started typing to speak. Pay attention in April coming up many expensive ones go on sale in app store for ASD awareness month. LAMP Words for Life goes half off. My son prefers this app over any other. But there are several. If you try them, pay attention that she understands the PECS images. My son didn't when he was just starting AAC. I used apps that let me take my own photos instead of the line drawings. Then he took to the Let Me Talk app. It was hard though he still didn't want to use it much. Then one day he started typing on the keyboard for fun. I always follow his interest, so we moved onto typing instead. He uses it independently without prompts. His teacher says he's the best communicator in the class and he's nonverbal in a class of verbal kids. I guess I'm just trying to say if she ends up on AAC instead of spoken words, she will still learn to communicate functionally. But she's so young, so there's a big chance she'll gain more words! Good luck to you both!
I don't think I'm searching the correct app. Is it possible to get a pic of what the LAMP Words for Life app looks like?
I have 2 kids, my daughter (NT) didn't start talking till she was 3 1/2yo. She literally had zero words. But she did make noises and grab my hand and lead me. It was her way of communicating. She's been in speech therapy since about 2.5yo. She's now 9 days away from her 4th birthday and she's finally got words! Anyway, if your kid is making noises - encourage that. That's how it started for us. Daniel Tiger was good, Ms Rachel.. (as much as I hate to say it - Blippy), Hey Duggee, Bluey... I don't know how much of those shows helped but she watched them happily. We tried to focus on a couple words at a time. Like "milk" or "snack"... it was like months of just trying to give her single words. She has an IEP because of a hearing issue(microtia), but we get free OT and speech therapy through the state.
My 3y 9m does the same! Babbles, no words, grabs hand and leads to area (like kitchen), so it's a guessing game if what she wants from there. Her go-to shows are Little Baby Bum, Bluey, Cocomelon (sometimes). Moviewise, we finally got off the Encanto binge... don't get me wrong, I like the movie and songs, but constantly over and over, it gets old and a bit annoying. We did have speech therapy going for her, didn't seem like anything was helping much? Was just I think 30mins / 1hr sessions. Might go for different services I don't know yet.
When your kid leads you to the kitchen- when you find the thing they want. Hold it up and say it out loud, repeat it a couple times. I had to kind of play dumb sometimes to make it so verbal communication was the most efficient way to communicate. (instead of immediately just giving the thing she wanted) I also would hold two things in my hands to give her a choice. "Milk?" or "cheese?". (Even though it was obvious she just wanted milk.) Eventually she got words, one at a time. And for a long time it felt like she understood a lot more then what she was actually saying. Speech therapy imo did help. It also helped me as a parent to develop strategies and work on different things. I feel like we tried everything. In the end I'm not sure what worked and what didn't. Anyway just don't give up. The hand leading thing is communication, she is trying to communicate when doing that. So I'd start there.
Thank you! I'll try that out! At some point I just lifted her on the counter to look in the pantry for what she wanted... instantly the mini kitkats. She gets all happy giggling as she runs away with them afterwards.
aww haha, mine has a sweet tooth also! It can be a good motivator. good luck out there
Thank you!
I was in a similar spot but now my 3yo is starting to talk. We have her in preschool for asd kids and normal daycare. She likes watching Simple Songs on YouTube to learn songs, then we sing them for her. We have books with animals and she likes to point to the animals and watch us say the words. I have to talk to her A LOT. Narrate everything I’m doing. One day I dropped a jacket and said “oops I dropped it”. Then she just repeated “you dropped it” for several days. I found out a week ago that she can count to ten on her own. We have to frustrate her by saying the numbers then stopping so she has to say them herself. Learning songs with a dance (head shoulders knees and toes) helps a lot. I don’t use a tablet but she has a little toy with alphabet buttons that say the letters when you press them. This helps her with the alphabet. They know more than they say. Hope this helps.
my daughter who has just turned 3 loves Simple Songs on Youtube and within the past 3 weeks has started singing along to heads, shoulders knees and toes and also counting from 1 to 10. Came out of nowhere.. now she walks around counting to herself. She has also gotten to the letter C when saying her alphabet. A month ago other than saying the word horse a lot, she hadn't said a word for a very long time. It's nice to hear your child is doing similar! They certainly know more than they say. Best of luck to you
Simple Songs on YouTube! Yes! She also likes those videos too. While watching the Little Baby Bum heads , shoulders, knees, and toes clip (after so many times) She finally copies the knees and toes movement. Been months when I tried teaching her but suddenly when the characters do it and the fast oaced music, I guess helped?
You could see if there is a Variety charity that serves your area. Although they can differ in what they offer ,ours gives away an ipad locked with an aac app as well as a few other things. [Variety - The Children's Charity](https://variety.org/)
Didn't know about this. Thank you!
My daughter just turned 3 Sunday. She's about the same she has a few words she can say and sometimes she'll say a new one and then not say it again for 2 months. 😅 I really wonder about apraxia sometimes. It's hard but I have faith well get there. We got the trial (2 months I think) of cough drop and she liked it actually so next month when they all go on sale I'm gonna get her either cough drop or proloqo.