If your autistic child isn't talking, how long is speech therapy supposed to take before you actually see progress?

When Zoe was first approved for speech therapy once a week for seven months, Carrie genuinely thought that meant they'd do the therapy, Zoe would start talking in that timeframe, and they could check that off the list.

Yeah. That's not quite how it went.

Carrie also gets into something every autism parent eventually figures out: a good therapy day and a productive therapy day aren't always the same thing. Sometimes Zoe made it through the whole session. Sometimes 15 minutes was enough and it was time to go.

So how do you know if speech therapy is actually working?

That's where expectations get tricky. Progress for a nonverbal autistic child doesn't always show up as suddenly talking in sentences. Sometimes it's a word. A request. A song used to communicate. Or sometimes it's realizing your child has been finding ways to tell you things all along. And then, one day, you look back and realize just how much has changed.

So if you're searching for answers about speech therapy for autism, wondering whether speech therapy can help a nonverbal autistic child, trying to figure out how long speech therapy takes, or quietly asking yourself “Is this even working?”... come hang out with us.

We're talking about what speech therapy really looked like for Zoe, the expectations versus the reality, and how she went from nonverbal to an unreliable speaker.

We also somehow end up discussing whether Bubbles the cat is the reincarnation of Carrie's mom. As one does.

Because autism can be serious without every conversation about it having to be.

🎧 Next episode: ABA therapy. And yes, we know. People have feelings. 😬