How Do You Stop Echolalia In Autistic Children?
Echolalia is a repetition of some form of dialogue that the Autistic child has heard. It can be repeated immediately or in can be repeated per verbatim at a later stage. An example of immediate echolalia would be when someone asks the child “how are you?” and the child repeats “how are you?” This can include complete dialogues that the Autistic child has heard from a conversation or a movie or radio broadcast. It may not have a meaning to them at the time but they just repeat it. Echolalia can be a little confusing when the child uses it all the time and then gets frustrated when people don’t understand what they are trying to communicate. An example of this would be if you asked the child what they wanted for lunch, a hamburger or a hotdog. An Autistic child with echolalia would say hotdog as it is the last thing they would have heard even if it was the hamburger they really wanted then they may get upset when presented with the hotdog. Echolalia is being used by the child with Autism
