How My Autistic Child Started Speaking: Our Home Therapy Success
My autistic child recently scored a perfect 10/10 in a school oral test—a milestone I once thought impossible.
Two and a half years of early intervention and hard work have seen him fluently speaking like a neurotypical child. I would like to provide the specific, home-based speech therapy process that I undertook to support my non-verbal autistic child to find his voice.
The Diagnosis and My Decision
When my son was just two and a half years old, a doctor delivered the diagnosis: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The hardest part? He was unable to utter a word--not even “Mama” or “Papa”. He was given a nonspeaking status.
The doctor recommended therapy, but the nearest center was an hour away. Commuting that distance daily would have been too difficult for him. That day, I made a life-changing decision: I would do home-based therapies, determined he would overcome his speech delay.
The Key to Starting: Daily Routine Words
I didn't know where to begin, but the doctor gave me one piece of essential advice for language development: start by teaching him daily routine words. Focus on simple objects he interacts with every day, like water, food, and glass. The goal was to build a simple, practical foundation for functional communication.
I put away all the fancy learning toys. My entire focus was simple: language modeling through constant, clear repetition in his natural environment (our home).
Our Simple, Successful Home based speech Therapy Technique
This at-home speech therapy technique worked for us, and it requires nothing more than you and your child:
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Targeted Vocabulary: I chose just two to four high-frequency words to start: water, glass, Mama, and Papa.
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Constant Repetition (In Context): Whenever I performed an action, I paired it with the word, pointing to the object clearly, a strategy similar to Joint Attention exercises.
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When I gave him water, I pointed and said, "Water, water, water."
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When I showed him the glass, I said, "Glass, glass, glass."
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When his dad came home, I said, "Papa, Papa, Papa."
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I practiced this consistently for six months. I talked to him constantly—narrating his actions and the environment. This consistent early intervention was our breakthrough.
The Breakthrough
After six months, it happened. He started clearly saying Mama, Papa, water, glass, and other daily words. We were in! From there, I gradually introduced more vocabulary.
That two and a half years of hard work paid off. My son is now speaking and was able to gain admission to a normal school setting, starting in the playgroup class.
If your autistic child is non-verbal or struggling with a speech delay, please know that your dedication at home matters most. I have shared multiple effective home-based therapies for autism and detailed strategies on my blog to help your child on their journey toward communication.
Are you curious about the next set of words we introduced after the initial four, and how we transitioned to using simple sentences? Please feel free to contact me at mary@hufposts.com.
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