Another Autism and language question

Junebug060609

Is it common for them to go through spells where their speaking drops off or stops completely?

DS was doing well with using a handful of phrases daily. He hasnt since Monday. Absolutely no words at all until today when he said "I fall down" and "Ma/Mom". I have noticed that the amount of time I spend interacting with him directly impacts the frequency of his words...and I was super busy getting us squared away to travel for the holiday (DH is deployed, so all prep fell on me). He has had similar drop offs in the past. Not worried about him losing words yet as they are creeping back and he has done this in the past and the words resurfaced.

Mostly I was just wondering if it was common for them to go through phases like this. Days or a week of not talking. He has been doing a lot of closed mouth talking and humming instead of actual talking.

kcisthebombdotcom

My kiddo does this. I asked about it here a month or two ago and the consensus was the good day/bad day phenomenon is pretty common in the autism world. Like your kid mine has never actually lost words, just uses them some days/weeks and not others.

SantoriniSteph

This is common for DS.  But he has sporadic speech, where he know a lot of words and will use them correctly, but they come out sporadically.  He will say a handful of words for a week and then only babble for a few days or weeks.  I have also noticed that he speaks more when I'm around him.  I work full time and when we go on vacation, he tends to speak more.

kcisthebombdotcom

-auntie- said:

Not our experience. DS hasn't STFU since he started talking.

It isn't that unusual among kids on spectrum, especially those who have the more usual speech delays. Sometimes it happens when a child is "working on" another skill or preparing to hit a developmental milestone. And like @KC_13 said, sometimes kids just have "off" days.

Good point about when kids are working on other skills. Like a month ago dds speech therapist was starting to get concerned that dd was reverting back to signing words she would normally verbally communicate. She ended up having a huge explosion in receptive language shortly after and started talking again plus some.