My son is 12 years old and labeled non verbal. The problem I have with that label is my son can talk...he chooses NOT to. He uses short phrases to tell me what he wants, for example "Milk" when he wants a drink or "Come here" when he wants me to come to him. Sometimes he will hold a short conversion with me. He also hums, sings, laughs for no reason and makes all kinds of noises. He is the only person that I have ever met that can mimic the noises Pokemons make on the game. Then again, my son thinks he's the king and the rest of us are only here to serve him so why should he have to speak?? lol

My daughter is 6 and she makes sounds and hums, but that is about it. Sometimes a word comes out here or there but there is no context to it at all, other than she does say ma, ma , ma or da, da, da sometimes.

my son is 3 next month. He does babble and sometimes pretends to "talk" on the phone. His verbal skills fluctuate. he used to make a few animal sounds but now he only roars like a dinosaur. He has said a word perfectly once and only once and never repeats it. He recently started to sign about 3 signs but he really just scrolls through them all and seems unsure which one to use. It definitely gives a visual cue as to how confusing and complicated language is to him. He also goes through silent spells for a week at a time but I don't know why this happens.

My son hums a lot, jabbers on and on in his own language, and can't really say words. Lately though he's starting to attempt to say his first words, which is exciting. I think it just has a lot to do with the brain taking a long time to make the key connections necessary for speech.

That's how Ben does too. He has said some things of a spiritual nature that were AWESOME. When my dad died (when Ben was 12), my mother and I told Ben that grandpa went to be with Jesus. I then said, "Ben, grandpa is....(thinking he would finish the sentence like he always does. Instead, when I said, "Ben, grandpa is....he spontaniously said, "FREE!" How, with all the words in the English language, did he come up with THAT one if he didn't know what he was talking about?