[Tinanina]

My daughter is 5 years old. She is a very happy and warm child, but she speaks only in her own language and likes to lick objects. How difficult is the problem and will she ever speak? She has made a lot of progress in the last two years and understanding and behavior is generally much better. Sometimes she just says the right word at the right moment, but very rarely. Has anyone had a similar experience? I think I would say that this is an extremely slow psychomotor development.

[Skeezyks]

I'm sorry you have not received any replies to your post. Unfortunately I don't know the answers to your questions. I think this would require the expertise of someone who works professionally with children who have autism. Here's a link to an article, from PsychCentral's archives, on the subject of autism spectrum disorders. The article also provides links to additional articles on the subject:

https://psychcentral.com/lib/autism-...ders-in-depth/

My best wishes to you & your daughter...

[88Butterfly88]

I think early intervention would be appropriate in her case, please see a professional.

[PsychoPhil]

Speech development is delayed and your daughter should be examined by a pediatrician. There could be many causes: hearing difficulties, anatomical features, or an autism spectrum disorder.

[MistressStayc]

Originally Posted by PsychoPhil

Speech development is delayed and your daughter should be examined by a pediatrician. There could be many causes: hearing difficulties, anatomical features, or an autism spectrum disorder.

Yes this! The quicker she is evaluated the quicker she can receive any interventions she might need. when delays like this present themselves with autism or any disorder there is a small window in childhood in which they will be the most effective and most people don't know this. The effectiveness starts to decrease around 7 as brain development starts to slow down. They can still be effective after that, just not to the same degree.