Expert: Valerie Herskowitz - 3/29/2011

Question
we are currently under going accessment with our son who is 34 months old,for Autism.At the moment he has no words,no understanding of words or any simple commands as in 'can you get the ball' his way of communicating as in when he needs a drink is to take my hand & bring me to the counter.He has no fear,no concept of fear or danger also. Anyway although we are awaiting diagnosis,although i am sure & have been told by other specialist that there is definitely a form of autism there,my question is what is the likelyhood of him ever speaking,i know this is probably difficult for you to answer,but i mean in your experience have you come across children who never spoke & then with help or just out of the blue began speaking at an older age?

Answer
HI Shirley

I have worked with hundreds of children with autism. Some who did not speak a word at the same age that your son is and eventually learned to speak. Some, sadly, did not. However, it will NOT happen just out of the blue. He must get intensive therapy. And the one thing you really need to do immediately is to make sure that he learns to communicate via sign language, picture cards, or electronic visuals immediately. Providing him with a means to communicate while he is learning to speak is essential to eventually learning to communicate with speech. If you don't do this, I will tell you that the likelihood that he will acquire useful speech is less.

Feel free to write me back if you have other questions about this.

And good luck with the assessment.