A child goes through lots of exciting milestones in the first few years of their life. Learning to crawl and eventually walk, discovering the world around them, trying new foods and of course, learning to talk.
Naturally, this leads many parents and caregivers to worry that their child may be falling behind if they’re not ticking every box in the baby books right on schedule.
It’s important to remember that even if there is a slight delay, most children will learn in their own time and eventually, those worries will disappear.
However, when it comes to speech, it can be harder to determine if your child is just taking a little bit longer than their peers or if there is a deeper issue affecting their communication skills.
In order to determine if your child is considered nonverbal, you need to understand their communication abilities and developmental milestones. With that in mind, here’s how you can assess whether or not your child may be experiencing some bigger issues.
Understanding what is considered nonverbal
A child is typically considered nonverbal if they have no spoken language or if they use very few words. This doesn’t mean they have no ability to communicate; they may use gestures, facial expressions or vocalise different sounds to signify objects or words.
However, if they are not initiating or responding to conversation and they have very few words in their vocabulary they may be considered nonverbal.
Lack of functional speech may also fall into this bracket. This means that if your child has mastered some words but they don’t use them functionally. For example, they can name a few common objects but not ask for them when they want them.
They may also use these words randomly without much context and not as a way of communicating. This is more common in children who suffer from disorders like Autism.
Recognising age and developmental milestones
Before you panic that your two-year-old isn’t speaking in fluent sentences and is therefore nonverbal, it’s also a good idea to understand the different age and development milestones.
As some children advance quicker than others, having a better idea of these key milestones can help you to stay informed and determine if they’re just developing a bit slower or if there is a bigger underlying issue.
With that in mind, here are the age and developmental milestones to be aware of:
0-6 months
In the first six months of their life, babies start to coo and babble, this means making soft vowel sounds like ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ and repeating consonant-vowel combinations like ‘ba-ba’.
It is also likely that by four months they will be responding to sounds and different tones of voice.
6-12 months
Between 9-12 months, some babies may start to say their first words, typically words like mama’ or ‘dada’. Though these words may not be perfectly articulated right away, they are recognisable and intentional.
They should also begin to understand simple words like being told ‘no’ or ‘bye-bye’. They may even start to recognise their name at this age.
It’s not just their speech that begins to develop either, some babies of this age will start using gestures, such as waving or pointing to help them communicate further.
12-18 months
Between 12-18 months a child’s vocabulary begins to develop and they typically use around 5-20 words, these are mostly nouns. They may also begin to imitate words and sounds they hear frequently, even if they can’t properly pronounce or use these yet.
At this age, they should also be able to follow simple, one-step instructions like ‘sit down’ or ‘come here’.
18-24 months
Between 18-24 months, many children will experience a word explosion. This means they will rapidly acquire new vocabulary and by 24 months they will typically know between 50-100 words or possibly even more.
It is around 24 months that they start combining two words to form simple phrases, like ‘my toy’ or ‘drink please’. They may also begin to understand and respond to simple questions, for example, ‘where is your shoe?’.
2-3 years
At this stage, most children will start speaking in three-word sentences, for example, ‘I want juice’ or ‘go home now’. They will start to use pronouns (I, me, you) and plurals (toys, dogs) correctly and understand more complex instructions like ‘put your toys back in the box’.
By three years old, their vocabulary should be expanding and can range from anywhere between 200 to 1,000 words. This big difference in vocabulary is just another reason that you shouldn’t assume your child is nonverbal right away, as there can be such a vast difference between capabilities.
3-4 years
Between the ages of three and four, most children are using more complex sentences of around five words.
They will start to use grammar rules correctly, like past tense, such as ‘I stopped’ or ‘I ran’. They are also likely to begin engaging in back-and-forth conversations and asking lots of questions (we’ve all heard a child repeatedly asking ‘why’, haven’t we?).
They start to understand concepts like colours, shapes and basic prepositions and as a result, they can tell simple stories about what happened during their day.
4-5 years
By the age of five, children’s speech should be mostly fluent, with their sentences ranging from five to seven words. They can also use more complex grammatical structures.
Their stories will become more detailed and they should be able to describe past events, as well as talk about imaginary situations.
They start to understand more abstract concepts like time, they can follow three-step instructions and they can hold a full conversation.
Other early signs your child may be nonverbal
Finally, it is possible that children will use alternative methods of communication from a very young age that may indicate they will be nonverbal.
Some of these other early signs include using gestures, sign language or body language to communicate their needs and feelings rather than sounds. They may also prefer to use pictures, pointing or eye contact to communicate and ask for things.
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