This goes against fairly general advice that I’ve received from early intervention specialists, including for my own child (not diagnosed as neurodivergent, just speech delayed).
In our case the kid picked up signs we were teaching him (not ASL, just intentional signs) weeks before corresponding words, and there are still words he signs and understands but can’t pronounce. The point was to introduce expressive language for functional concepts (hunger, wanting help, wanting to be picked up, etc.), and beyond its role as a precursor to spoken words, it absolutely made our lives easier.
It’s a well known phenomenon that the ability to pronounce words lags behind the ability to express “language”. Your kids clearly didn’t need it, but it’s still a useful tool.
In our case the kid picked up signs we were teaching him (not ASL, just intentional signs) weeks before corresponding words, and there are still words he signs and understands but can’t pronounce. The point was to introduce expressive language for functional concepts (hunger, wanting help, wanting to be picked up, etc.), and beyond its role as a precursor to spoken words, it absolutely made our lives easier.
It’s a well known phenomenon that the ability to pronounce words lags behind the ability to express “language”. Your kids clearly didn’t need it, but it’s still a useful tool.