I have read before about 'swinging' in regard to autism but have no idea what it is? Can anybody help me? Anyways, my son was 4 the end of August and in the past few months has just started talking. My husband and I are the only ones who can understand most of his words but he his finally trying. Up until this point he would not even try any words. Since he has been undergoing assessment at age 2 we started signing basic signs to him like please, more, eat, drink, etc. We also used pecs mostly to help with choices...do you want cereal or toast? Juice or milk? Those really helped sort out his frustration at not being able to tell us. I also continually modelled back everything. He would 'ask' for a drink and instead of just giving him the drink I would say oh, you want a drink and repeating signs back to him. Even now that he has started saying words he will keep repeating the word until I verify what he is saying. You said your son is usuing one sign so focus on that sign and use it over and over again and always use other basic signs when talking to him. Now when my son speaks the word more if people are not understanding him he will use the sign to get his point across.
Also, before he started to say full words he would say word approximations. He said mo for more, ba for bath, etc. This was from my son who said mom and dad since 18months and would not try any other sounds. Just keep working on any communication and verify everything he his 'saying' no matter how he gets his point across. Kids need to realize their noises have a positive outcome. Just my thoughts.

My son used to be nonverbal- now he says many words, but not too many sentences yet. I would start wiht the things he likes the most. My son used to scream whenever he wanted something. I would figure out what he wanted, say the object repeatedly, and make him say it before I gave it to him. I think one of his fist words was apple. He loves them-lol! I still use this practice now, only with short sentences. Good luck!

my neighbours kid is 5 1/2 and essentially non-verbal, although lately hes said, "noooonnna" for Nonna, and "stay" - he wanted his sister to stay in bed with him and cuddle he also said it to his brother. He has also said "up" and "down" I think that is most of it. I do know that the swing does help. At the park this summer she and I brought the kids and her and my son are both pretty big and heavy. Anyway he was playing a game wanting my full attention. Everytime I went to push my own son or daughter on the swing he would jump off, grab my hand and then want me to hoist him back up and the swing. I told him "no way... not until you tell me up!" And he wanted it so back he said it, (after several attempts anyway) My neighbour was shocked! She admitted she never forces him past his comfort zone with speaking because she doesn't want to frustrate him. I used to deny my son milk or juice back at about 3 years old until he would say the word. He would freak and bang his head and tantrum etc but guess what, he wanted the milk bad enough and he would say it! Of course don't do this to the point of abuse or anything. But they have to become motivated enough to break out of themselves to speak. You know what I mean? If they aren't motivated, they won't bother.
just 2 cents.

Well I am a big advocate of video modeling. Sean has learned so many things from the watch me learn videos, I just ordered from teach2talk and am awaiting them. Sean has learned so many new words and phrases from video modeling. You never know what will work, but this did work for Sean. Good Luck. Hugs Denise

my son was non verbal till about 7. He did have some words before that but limited.

until 10 months ago all adam did was grunt and scream. not knowing anything about autism at the time i just told him if he wanted to talk to me he had to use words. slowly but surely he stared using words, only my husband and myself understood him so i would always repeat the word back to him and have him say it several times the best he can. he has gotten a whole lot better. one example: along with the school spt and teachers we have been working on him for 10 months trying to teach him to say the word YES correctly, just in the last few weeks he has started saying it correctly, instead of saying ,nah, for yes he is sounding it out and is getting better everyday. it took 10 months for one word to become clear. long road, but well worth it. his speech has come a long way since he learned that if he tried to use his words he would get the attention he is seeking faster instead of spending long periods of time trying to figure it out while he screams.

Thanks everyone I guess I need to tell him he needs to talk.I know he understands most things.I never tried any videos because all he will watch is veggie tales since he was a baby.He wont focus on anything else.Im really thankful for the advise I started thinking my son was one of few not talking.I guess he is the typical and no limits.

My daughter just turned 5. Until about one month ago she only said Mama, Dada and Bye. 3 months ago we started the GFCF diet and Methyl B12 shots. She is now sounding out words phonetically and having some success in putting everything together. She has at least tripled her vocabulary of real words that she uses every day. Still a long way to go, but I have renewed hope now.

My son will be 3 in December and is still non-verbal. He has a few important words like Mom, Dad, Papa, Up, Bye, Milk but they aren't that clear. He uses PECS and we try to get him to repeat the first part of every word. That has helped a lot. We also used the Baby Bumble Bee Videos. They didn't really help him talk but they did help his receptive language. He is currently on supplements and follows the GF/CF Diet. We will be starting MB12 shots once we done a couple courses of antibiotics. I heard MB12 has worked wonders on some children, I will see what it does for ours!

Oliver was non verbal and had no eye contact before the 'Drops" then he really started talking when we got sufficient speech and OT in summer school. We have PECS and the teacher uses some sign to prompt, but not too many. He learns most form the internet educational games at PBS and NOGGIN and other CD's we have with kindergarten level games. He really enjoyed the Reader Rabbit games too, but now he seeks out the violent ones and I need to watch where he "surfs" He also learned a lot from being with talking 3 year olds. He regresses when he is with other non verbal kids. Now he is saying many word sentences if he is not upset about something, and he will regress to screams if he is upset and is stressed about something. He has pretty typicaly eye contact now as well.

Have any of your children been evaluated for apraxia by someone who REALLY KNOWS apraxia?
Apraxia is when the child can't speak or can't speak well due to muscle movement problems in the mouth. This causes the child to have trouble forming words.
I have a very good friend whose son only had a couple of words (that were very hard to understand) until he was 12 years old. Then he started talking more because of direct therapy to work on his apraxia. Today he is still hard to understand but he actually has better sentence formation and actually asks and answers questions (something my son who has always spoken doesn't do well at all!)

Another BIGGIE for increasing language is using a visual schedule. When my son was 8 I finally listened to the experts and put together a visual schedule for him that showed the main activites of the week and showed all everything for the day. I broke each day down by morning, then after school through dinner and then dinner until bedtime.
I only put up pictures (with words) for each period of time, so after he left for school I would put up the afternoon schedule.
My son's language not only blossomed within a month but he learned SO MANY concepts that I was astounded! He learned before and after, now and later, today tomorrow, next week, AND he learned to negotiate with me which was amazing. A visual schedule that we used EVEZRY SINGLE DAY was easily one of THE BEST things we ever did for him.

Also it is important to remember that not being able to speak is not the same as not having anything to say. That was a t-shirt that a dear friend of my used to wear all of the time. This is because his son was non verbal and was considered profoundly mentally retarded. Later on when he started using facilitated communication he was able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was intelligent and had a lot to say.
By high school he was taking advanced placement classes.
Just something to remember and to give you hope!

My daughter was nonverbal till a few weeks ago, We taught her a few signs to get her going, and now she is doing alot of mimmicing, she wont speak unless we say something then she will repeat but its a start, Just a matter of keeping at it, we have had my daughter whos going to be 3 in therapy since she was 18 months,,Early intervention

Julie,
Note on Janneane's comment, did you get a good evaluation? There may be that the therapy is not targeting the correct need. I am having that problem with the school SLP. The private one and the public school summer session SLP result in great progres and the other regular on has had limited results at best, and she also messed up my 8 year old since he was 5 when she has serviced him for years with no result.