AJ Still Hasn't Started Talking. Could He Be deaf?
So I was watching this (extremely funny) video of a guy's reaction to the Kenny death and he mentioned why AJ wasn't talking which brought up some good points. 
In most flashbacks it is constantly repeated that AJ should be talking now but he's not. Guns have been set off right next to AJ's ear (like when Clem shoots Jane she's holding AJ.) Him being that young and still developing, couldn't the guns cause him to go deaf? If he is then his chances of surviving are... well, like, zero.
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I was thinking the same that he could possibly be deaf and like you said it will be impossible for him to survive on his own when he's older.
The guy in the video makes a lot of valid points, to be fair, however I really loved Season 2. I thought he was fine in Season 2. I liked that Clem could defend him if she wanted to. I liked standing by Kenny when everyone was turning against him. As far as I'm concerned, I agree with that guy with almost every point he made.
Oh yeah the point of the thread, yeah it's a likely theory.
I'm not sure what the points in the video are, but there's evidence to suggest he isn't deaf.
In the Wellington Flashback, Clementine can make a guess as to what the drawing is. If you guess wrong, he shakes his head and points to Clementine. If you guess it's her, then he nods or something.
Then in the S3E2 Flashback, if you hum a song he quiets down in response.
As for why he doesn't talk, it's obvious. The plot is holding him back so he can speak his first word at an emotionally critical and tense moment that involves him.
Damn I thought I was the first to notice that he is deaf.
List of reasons:
*He stares at Clem when she talks: It's almost as if he is trying to read her lips.
*He's exposed to gun fire at birth: Just that firefight between the Russian group can probably deafen an adult. ( fuck Arvo)
He's not deaf. If you choose the Wellington ending, and Clem cutely quesses what AJ's drawing is, he will either point at Clem or clap... Or in the flashback you can hum him a song and he responds by being quiet
Actually Good Point I forgot about this.
I don't think he is deaf. Maybe he is a mute? But he can still cry and laugh. Unless that isn't associated with speaking.
You know, I'm actually on board with the idea of him having some kind of disability or something like that.
Deafness is a possibility, but then there's the fact that Rebecca went through quite a lot of traumatic experiences before she had AJ. I don't think it's out of the question that he'd have some complications, given everything that happened to both Rebecca and him.
In fact, I think it'd be unique for him to have some kind of developmental problem, instead of turning out completely fine. People were annoyed at how AJ managed to survive the blistering cold of S2 with little in the way of food... might as well show us that he isn't a little superhuman.
I don't think he's deaf because he can still hear Clem talk and hum like @Davissons and @Mrskinnyjeans said, but he's probably mute. Mute people can still laugh and such, to an extent. A distant relative of mine is deaf-mute, so I know a little bit about the conditions.
I don't think he's deaf, I just think he has a hard time speaking for a very good reason.
Now I've studied Language Acquisition and there are four main ways in which it is thought babies learn to talk,
Cognitive - Babies learn how to speak when they begin understanding the concept of language which just "activates" in their brains
Behaviourist - Babies learn how to speak through positive and negative reinforcement (rewarding them with food for saying a word for example)
Nativist - Similar to cognitive, babies work out what is and isn't a word and the rules for speaking (sentences), through language programmed in their mind
Interaction - Babies learn to speak through social interaction from being spoken to, hearing others speak, etc.
Now a lot of linguists are conflicted because all of these have been proven and disproven in many ways, so many linguists agree it's usually a combination of all four that leads babies to begin speaking.
Nevertheless I won't get into the specifics of how a baby should talk but if AJ is 2 years or close about, then he should definitely be uttering words by now or at least getting close to. Since he does seem to utter some "baby-talk" (random garbled phrases and sounds), he isn't totally not going to speak. Sometimes it takes longer for some than for others for different reasons, so I think he'll learn to speak eventually.
When growing up in a "normal" society, people talk, every single, day. You have computers with videos of people speaking, you have televisions where everyone is speaking or there is some sort of voice, movies, your parents talk, your parents talk on the phone, family members talk to you, you go outside and you see people talking all the time, especially addressing babies.
However, no matter what scenario you're in, Clementine is alone and with AJ. They are constantly on the run, so that means they have VERY little time for talking. The best case scenario for AJ would be Wellington and even then if Edith is right in saying people are "sick" and "starving", then that means they're not very inclined to speak to AJ. We don't even know the population of Wellington so it's not like it'll really balance in the favour of getting AJ to speak, people are more likely focusing on how to survive.
So with that being said, AJ will probably learn to talk but just much later.
We also have to talk about the idea that he could be deaf. He was literally just one-a few days old when the Russian shootout happened and so hearing so many loud sounds close to him could cause some hearing impairment. But I don't think he's totally deaf, he responds to Clementine such as when she's humming, he can hear walkers (hence when he takes a time to turn back and look at them coming towards him), he even glances towards the door when Ava is begging Clementine to let her in (and sure you could say he's reacting to the door moving but I think he heard her as well). At most he's most likely partially deaf.
I didn't think deaf, just experiencing some developmental delays. I mean, who knows how being born into the environment could affect a child. We don't see that much. Judith on the WD show is the only other one. She seems normal too but who knows?