Really praying someone can relate to my story.

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I have a four old Daughter named Christine. Christine has never said one true word. She has severe Mixed expressive Receptive language delay. She babbles a lot but she will not try to repeat any sounds or words. A year ago she wouldn't follow any commands. Within the last six months she has came a long way. She has a nabi jr tablet and I never imagined out intelligent she is until I saw her interacting with the toy. Christine can find any word on a page you ask for. She knows all her letters. She knows all her animals. She can spell many things. She knows all her colors and can even draw pretty well. All the sudden you can ask her where any object is and she will point to it. She will point to people by name and all body parts. All of these wonderful milestones have recently showed up. I'm having a hard time understanding why she will not try to say any word. I'm not sure if she has speech apraxia. I'm not entirely sure it is apraxia because she never tries to say words anyway. I'm pretty sure she will be Dx with autism this month. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced any of these traits? Is it possible she may try and talk someday? She lacks social skills also.

What therapies are you doing with her? My son did not have speech delay but I have read many accounts from other parents whose kids have first started to speak the 4, 5 or later. The gains you are seeing now are very hopeful signs. Hang in there! Autism and other conditions are developmental delays, the operative word being "delay". The delay is more pronounced in some children. I think that the level of awareness and ability to interact you have described bode well for her eventually learning to talk.

I've read Carly's Voice: Breaking Through Autism by Arthur Fleischmann, and his non-verbal autistic daughter Carly Fleischmann who communicates by typing.
One of the things Carly types about is when a nanny (i think) asked Carly and her brother and sister what they wanted for dinner.
Carly answered what she wanted to eat but the Nanny only reacted to what her brother and sister said.
That was the first time when Carly realized her voice was different and that others can't hear her voice.
They can hear her brothers and sisters voices but not Carly's voice.

I've heard a couple different stories that you might find interesting.

In one, a child suddenly started to talk a little older than your daughter, and when questioned he noted that he had always thought he WAS talking, and couldn't understand why no one heard it. He hadn't connected that the voice inside his head was not heard by anyone else.

Another is my friend's son who didn't speak until he was four, but clearly understood everything, and could express himself pretty well without words. One night while he was still non-verbal they woke to hear him babbling, and started to wonder if he didn't want to speak out loud until he had it perfect. When he started talking, it was in full and detailed sentences.

Finally, there is a woman I know from this forum, who is brilliant but mostly non-verbal. Basically, she can't handle the sense and sound of speaking out loud; it doesn't sound right to her and is extremely uncomfortable. She communicates mostly by reading and writing; that is just what works for her.

With the world of computers we now have ways to get inside minds that once were locked away from us, and we discover amazing things. Keep following her lead and see where you go. Things happen in the brain that we just are not capable of understanding and this is one of them. But, I must say, I am so excited for you that she is finding her way!

I personally didn't talk until I was 4. I started reading when I was 2, and loved it. One day my mom noted me babbling, and thought she could make out a few words. She took me to a speech therapist who said I was talking, but really fast. So my mom enrolled me in speech therapy, and by 5 I was talking intelligibly. This was in the 1970s.

My friend's son did not speak until he was 5. He is probably about 7 now and has surpassed his peers.

Even after my daughter learned to talk, it took awhile for her to catch on that I was not privy to her thoughts.

I can say that for her, verbal behavior therapy (sometimes referred to as VB) really helped her to understand what talking was for. Before that, I got the strong sense that she just didn't get it.

I just had an Ah-ha moment. I never in a millon years would think she's unaware that people couldn't hear her talk inside her head. It really makes a lot sense here. She hasn't had VB therapy. She's only in speech therapy for now. I'm switching Therapist this month after her evaluation is complete. I'm very exited to see her in VP therapy. Thanks Guys. Your replies mean the world. xoxo

So wonderful for you to see her display all this understanding. Really puts those myths about autistics lacking intelligence in the toilet where they belong.

Hopefully you will find a therapist that can help her learn to speak; in the mean time, don't get too hung up on verbal language. Some of us can't seem to shut up (HI!! !! ) while others never do manage to co-ordinate all the signals necessary to form words. Not being able to talk doesn't mean one cannot have a voice and make it heard.

Good luck with that beautiful little thing.

Just a side note. My daughter had VB along side of traditional ST. She did have some issues with articulation and apraxia along side of just not getting "why" we speak. The ST was not nearly as helpful for the actual communicative aspects of speech, but she did set my daughter up with various exercises to help her. For example, my daughter bit her tongue until it bled nearly every time she ate. From this, we determined that she may have difficulty perceiving where in her mouth her tongue was. We did different activities to help this, including moving cheerios to different parts of her mouth, using pieces of ice to help her notice the sensations, etc.