You Can Say That Again Or Echolalia Echolalia Echolalia

three Things You Should Know About Echolalia

By Lauren Lowry
Hanen Certified SLP and Clinical Staff Writer

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) use echolalia, which means they repeat others' words or sentences. They might repeat the words of familiar people (parents, teachers), or they might echo sentences from their favourite video.

When children repeat words right after they hear them, it'due south known equally immediate echolalia. When they repeat words at a subsequently time, it'south known as delayed echolalia. As a result of the fourth dimension delay, delayed echolalia may seem very unusual because these sentences are used out of context. For example, a kid might savour a song his teacher sang at circumvolve time, and and so later ask to sing information technology at abode past maxim "It's circumvolve time" instead of proverb the name of the song.

While it might be difficult to effigy out what a kid is trying to say when he or she uses echolalia, learning a little bit about this blazon of speech communication tin can aid you figure out the meaning behind his or her message. Here are three things you demand to know near echolalia.

1. Children with ASD use echolalia considering they learn language differently

Typically developing children tend to brainstorm learning language by first understanding and using unmarried words, and and then they gradually string them together to make phrases and sentences.

Children with ASD often follow a unlike route. Their first attempts at language may be longer "chunks" of language (phrases or sentences), which they are not able to break down into smaller parts. These chunks are more grammatically complicated than they could put together themselves, and they don't understand what the private words mean.

For example, a child might say "It's time for your bathroom" every time he hears his male parent filling up the bathtub. He knows those words accept something to do with bath time, but he doesn't know what "it's," "time," "for," "your," and/or "bathroom" mean individually, and he can't use these words in other sentences. Because he doesn't sympathise all of the words, he uses the pronoun incorrectly (using "your bath" instead of "my bath").

We tin help children who use echolalia by helping them learn to intermission downwards longer chunks of language and understand what the individual words mean so they can apply them more flexibly.

At that place are many reasons children might use echolalia for a communicative purpose.

two. Echolalia oft has a purpose or message

There may exist times when children use echolalia to soothe themselves when they're upset or to rehearse something, and in those cases echolalia may not be intended to send a message to someone. Just there are also many reasons why children use echolalia for a communicative purpose, such as [1,2]:

• To enquire for things (eastward.g. a child might say "Exercise you lot want a cookie?" to ask for a cookie, every bit he's heard others offering cookies this way before)
• To start an interaction or keep it going (e.thou. a child might initiate a game of Hide and Seek by saying a line from the game, like "Set or not, hither I come!")
• To depict someone's attention to something (eastward.g. a kid might draw attention to something he's noticed past using a line he's heard before to describe attending to something else, like "It's a bird, it's a plane, information technology's Superman!")
• To protest something (e.grand. if a child imitates "You don't want to wear those pants?" as his parent is getting out his clothes, he might really mean "I don't want to habiliment those pants")
• To answer yes (e.1000. if a child imitates "Exercise you desire some yogurt?" right subsequently he's been asked that question, he may actually want some yogurt and really mean "yep")

Figuring out the significant backside echolalia can be tricky! Looking at the context is very important, and thinking about the time the child originally heard it tin can help too. With a little detective work, it's possible to figure out what he'south trying to tell you.

3. Echolalia is a stepping stone to flexible language

Researchers who study echolalia have noticed patterns in the mode information technology progresses in children with ASD [1]:

• Initially, children repeat "chunks" of language without agreement what they mean
• And so, children first to modify these chunks of language. They mix and recombine words and phrases they have used (this is called "mitigated echolalia").
• Every bit they start to understand more language, some children use shorter sentences or just use one or two words to limited themselves.
• Gradually, linguistic communication becomes more spontaneous and flexible. Echolalia might be used occasionally, specially when a child is tired, confused or frustrated. But more than words and phrases are used appropriately and flexibly one time the child's understanding increases.

Echolalia can be confusing. Just by understanding why children use it and how it serves as a bridge to more flexible language, y'all will be better equipped to assistance a child who uses echolalia.

Stay tuned for our side by side article with tips for helping children who employ echolalia to communicate.

References

1. Prizant, B. (1983). Language Acquisition and communicative behavior in autism: Toward an understanding of the "Whole" of it. Periodical of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 48, 296-307.
2. Stiegler, L. Due north. (2015). Examining the echolalia literature: Where practise speech-language pathologists stand? American Journal of Speech communication-Language Pathology, 24, 750-762.

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