Aspies For Freedom

i rarely talked for most of my childhood. i only said a few words a day until i was about 8 yrs old. however i was able to use comunicative phrases starting when i was about 2. my question is does not speaking even though you are able to count as a language delay? it doesn't look like it as far as diagnostic criteria  for aspergers but i thought i would check with you guys.

No, "language delay" means that you actually couldn't talk or didn't learn to talk. Just choosing not to speak very often isn't considered a language delay.

thanks :wink:

Could it be that when I did not talk until I was over 4 years old it was of my own choosing and thus does not really count as a speech delay?  At that age, I don't feel like I had any choice in the matter.  I seem to have been somewhat like a robot, not having any idea what was moving me.  When I did start talking it was with a complete sentence, which I then (at least to my memory of it) that I repeated over and over.  I had no idea at the time what I was really saying, though.  I think I should have been able to be dx'ed as autistic, but that was more than 40 years ago.

Your situation is different (at least from the way you describe it). You make it sounds as though you never uttered a single word before the age of 4. Even if it was of your own choosing, that's still a "speech delay."

Kai here is different. He spoke, he just didn't speak much. I was the same way. I spoke as little as possible. I believe there were days when I didn't speak at all. That doesn't count as a "speech delay" though.

i didnt spoke much as a kid though.  i could actually speak before my one year old birthday but i mostly kept really quiet.