HI there
I am asking this question afraid of the answer,I suppose it really is a question for the more senior parents.
Harrison isn,t making any attempt to talk yet,he babbles a bit but cant seem to say anything,
So do DS chidren eventually talk? LV from Mary
:rolleyes:

Dr. Libby Kumin did a study that came out about a year ago, that found the "average" age for kids with DS to start talking is 4. But remember the window on "normal" for kids with DS is quite wide.

I know lots of adults with DS who are not big talkers, but what they SAY is clearly very important to them. It is also interesting to me that what they DO say is crystal clear, there just isn't a lot of it. My friend might only hear a few words from him all day, but when she asks what he wants for dinner, you can bet, "I want pizza please" comes out clear as a bell.

And then there are kids like Angela who talk incessantly, but it's not always easy to understand.

Don't give up hope. Babbling is a great indicator that he wants to communicate, he's just still working on the articulation part. Keep in mind, too, that with the possibility of autism, he may not be super interested in communication with everyone.

Lots of kids with DS do a lot of "self talk". In Angela's case, she narrates EVERYTHING she's doing. (which is great when she's getting into stuff cuz you can hear her talking about it 2 rooms away.) She also carries on a lot of conversations with invisible people (usually characters from her favorite shows) and "goes" to all sorts of places with them. I think she does this more than typical kids with DS because she doesn't have any siblings here to play with. Instead she uses her imaginary friends.

Noah will be 7 in May and it has taken awhile, but he is really talking a lot now. I'd say since he started kindergarten back in September, his talking and words have doubled. He is saying more complete sentences now and saying words and phrases that I've never heard him say. For instance my husband was watching TV and not paying attention to what he was saying the other evening and Noah finally waved his hand in front of my husband's face and said, with GREAT emphasis "HELLOOOOOOOOOOO, daddy I'm talking to you, you not listening". It was hilarious, but indeed WONDERFUL that he put all of that together at once. He's doing great with his words. BUT, I know 2 children who are 8 and 9 years old with Ds, and neither of them say anything, nothing, not a word. I think that, again, it's on an individual basis, not all children with Ds are the same and nothing is textbook.

In Germany some people think, that early reading helps a lot to get our childrento talk. We do early reading with Cecilie and what I found out is, that once she can read a word ( remember what it looks like, if you want to), she will try to pronounce it and a couple of weeks later that word is being used in spoken language spontaneouly. Not always very clearly, but still.

Friederike

Hi There
Harrison defentely seems to want to communicate,He does quite a few signs in Makaton,the ones he is using to communicate with us are ( juice more dinner tired)he signs about 27 other signs by showing him the photos of animals transport etc everthing else he points too, I guess I,ll have to be patient,Thanks Mary

Colin has signed since he was about 8 months on his own (hand over hand since 6 months) but he just in the last week has started saying things - no where near consistent. He signs almost 100 words and knows the signs for each of his classmates (refuse to sign anything but sister for Melea though)

Yesterday he said "eye" when he wanted ice with his drink (Melea says that so I was not surprised) and eat (more like eaaaaaaa) and daddy (always that!) and baby.

Last week he said his usual words - hi and ball and bye a lot more! So I think he is really starting to get it!

Melea on the other had is chatty kathy- she self narrates ( but I know they learned that from me- an ei technique to expose to more language - especially when it was just me and the the two children 5 days a week). She has many words and has finally started using them at school- I have even had to ask her not to talk, she also sings - however this is not understandable- except I here the tune so I know which song she is trying to do!

Sam is nine years old and he doesn't say much but will repeat what you say. He will watch VeggieTales video's and sing along with them and you can make out what he is saying. I know he knows what words mean and he can say them but he just doesn't take the time to talk much. He has a toy that will say a word and ask him what the word starts with and he will find the letter and press it and is almost always right, So I know he knows a lot more then he expresses. I also know that he doesn't hear as well as he should and really needs tubes in his ears again but I can not convince my husband to allow me to have this done again as he doesn't believe it does any good since the last several time we had this done they fell out within a week or two. Sam has had seven sets of tubes and his ear canals are smaller then Katarina's and she is only 4. My husband hates it when they put my kids under and is afraid that it may be doing more damage than good.
Mary Beth

Bene is almost 6 and really didn't start talking much before she was 5. After that, it's been a hayday! I too, was very impatient, longing for the day when I could actually have a conversation with her. That day is here, and let me tell you, it's everything I ever hoped for. I think her little brother's language development did miracles to hers; if he says it, she wants to say it. They are so competitive.
However, she whispers. Unless she's alone with me or other people, one on one. She is not shy, so we can't really figure out why she does this. When she whispers, I tell her "what? I can't hear you, honey", and she'll speak up. Any ideas on why she does this?

Solveig

I love reading threads like this.. but afraid to answer sometimes LOL

Russell is 8 and has NEVER said a word. It's not that he knows how to talk and chooses not to.. he does NOT know how to talk yet. He also doesn't communicate. BUT.. that said.. Russell does have Autism. Russell doesn't initiate signing nor point, ect....

I think a key indicator to future speech and communication IS the early on of pointing, gesturing and signing, ect... I read alot that then the verbal speech comes later... some sooner.. some later...So.. I LOVE reading when kids DO do this!!!

We, unfortunately are on a different path... Russell MAY talk one day.. but truthfully, IF he gets to that point.. it will never be his form of communication. He can sign a bit with prompting... but communication is primative for him.

A.

Mikey says a few words but not consistently. He says "no", "yeah", "cut", "lily" (the dog's name) and not much else. He signs and uses PECS to communicate. Mikey has PDD so that effects his ability to communicate.

Julian started saying words here and there around the age of two or three. He never spoke in complete sentences until he started school last year. He started kindergarten at the local public school and within weeks he came home and was speaking in lots of full sentences. I know it feels like it will never happen, but give it time. It will happen, I can assure you.

Mary, I know exactly how you feel. My greatest fear was that my son, Matthew would never talk. He received speech therapy and learned to sign as a baby but for years never even attempted to say a word. When I voiced my concerns to his speech therapist she would just smile and say that someday Matthew would be so talkative that I wouldn't be able to get a word in edge-wise. I didn't believe her and felt she made light of my concerns. As it turns out she was right. He began using single words when he was four years old. By the time he was five he would use 2-3 word sentences. He began to read when he was a little over seven years old which helped his speech alot and he began talking in 6+ word sentences. Well, to make a long story short -- Matthew is eighteen years old now and he talks so much that I can't always get a word in edge-wise.

Yes! I think children w/ ds will talk. AJ who is 7 years old is talking and doing fine. It's bit hard for people who have never heard him talk to understand him but AJ is talking and is able to express his thoughts and feelings!
Don't worry to much, the fact that he is babbling is an excellent sign that he will and wants to talk!

What a great relief to see this post. To know I am not the only one. My greatest fear is how to know her wants. She just received an aid for school and he is legally deaf, he can read lips and can "hear" some with his hearning aids but he can talk so he signs and talks to Samantha. I wanted to add a question to this if I could. At what age did your children that use sign, sign appropriatly. What I mean is use the sign for what they want. Samantha will only mimick about 6 signs and that is if we do it first.

How old is Samantha? Children can start using sign as early as one year of age maybe even earlier? AJ can speak pretty well but the little sign language he learned at a young age, he still uses.

Samantha is 3 1/2 years old. It still puts me in awe on how fast time goes by.

Now I know my son is older than many here. But as a mom of a teen age boy with DS (14) I almost wish he would stop talking, singing etc.

The earlier you start to sign (and you should be signing EVERYTHING you say, just just one word here and there....it's tough, but without it you're giving a non-fluent language model) the earlier your child will produce signs. If you don't introduce them to age one, you can't expect to see them for many months.

Angela started signing at 6 months of age, just like a typically developing baby who is deaf, or who has deaf parents. Her first sign was "more", and then from there we got "eat", then the names of everyone in the family (you have to set up name signs to do this.) By the time she started preschool at age 3 she had 600+ signs (that's where we stopped counting) But as is typical for most kids who have DS (not all....most) by age 5 she'd largely dropped the signs, and was speaking, we just couldn't understand her. That why sign is only good for a time. Once your child's vocabulary bypasses your sign vocabulary, THEN WHAT????? And what about reading? There is absolutely NO CORRELATION BETWEEN SIGNS AND WRITTEN WORDS!

Many kids with DS will have an explosion in speech once they start reading too...but if they can't say the words, or sign them either because you don't know the sign or becuase it's a fingerspelled word (and about 40$ of English words have no sign equivelent and must be fingerspelled) , you're left not being able to understand them.