48. Differentiating a Speech Delay and/or Autism
Aug 05, 2021For many of us, maybe even you, speech delay was one of the first things that we were concerned about in our child’s development.
For our children with autism not only are they delayed in their speech, but they are often delayed in other areas of development including initializing communication using eye contact, or gestures like pointing or shaking their head. They also may lack eye contact, not respond to their name, and may use the words that they do have out of context that makes no sense.
CDC’s Developmental Milestone- https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html
A child who isn’t developing critical speech or language skills needs help and the sooner the intervention starts, the better.
Children with autism can learn to speak. So, even if your child isn’t talking by age 4 or 5, they can go on to develop speech, they will just need some extra help getting there.