What is Echolalia?
Echolalia is the repetition or echoing of verbal utterances made by another person. Up to 75% of verbal persons with Autism exhibit echolalia in some form. There are two types of Echolalia: Immediate Echolalia and Delayed Echolalia. Immediate Echolalia is the repetition of words and phrases that occurs immediately or very soon after the original words. Delayed Echolalia is the repetition of words or phrases that are echoed hours, days, or weeks after they were originally heard. Both may serve a variety of functions for communication for the individual. Echolalia can include repetition of part of the utterance as well as an identical repetition of the entire spoken utterance, sometimes including an exact replication of the inflectional pattern used by the speaker. Echolalia occurs in normal language development, yet decreases as the typically developing child gains more spontaneous generative language. In children with Autism, Echolalia occurs with greater frequency and lasts for a long
And how it affects my child When I share with people who don’t know my child about him being the Autism spectrum – many will ask if he is like Rain Man. They remember from the movie how the character played by Dustin Hoffman recited from ‘Who’s on First’ over and over. This is Echolalia. Not everyone with Autism uses echolalic speech. Some do. Some don’t. Some don’t speak at all. My son speaks and is also echolalic. Here are just a few things that my child does that are part of Echolalia: -Repeating phrases from his video games (especially from Leapster) and other website games that he plays like www.starfall.com and www.pbskids.org. -Television commercials: at one point he knew all the wireless providers commercials buzzlines and when we drove past one of their brick & mortar locations he would call out “Raising the bar!” or “Get more minutes!”, etc. -The ability to retain full conversations and scenes from TV shows, commercials, videos or movies regardless of seeing it one time or on
Echolalia is the repetition of verbalizations often seen in autism. This condition may be immediate or delayed, and functional or non-functional. The immediate form involves short-term memory. Your child repeats a word or phrase which was just spoken. He may be using this technique to buy time until the information can be adequately processed and an appropriate response formulated. This repetition may also be used as a way for him to continue the conversation. The delayed form involves long term memory. This form may be functional or non-functional. In the functional type, your child applies a phrase inappropriately from one situation to another situation. The intent is communication with others. In the non-functional type, your child may repeat entire television programs or dialogues. The intent does not appear to be communication with others. These vocalizations are generally more pronounced in stressful situations. Echolalia is actually the normal way that most children learn langua
Echolalia is the phenomenon exhibited by those afflicted with autism, Tourette’s syndrome and other forms of developmental disabilities or psychopathological conditions that causes them to repeat the last words or syllables they hear. In some situations, it may represent meaningful attempts at speech. In others, it may be meaningless repetition. For those dealing with autistic individuals especially, echolalia is often seen as a sign of meaningful verbal communication. However, this should be carefully scrutinized. If it can be substantially demonstrated the autistic individual is not just meaninglessly repeating words, then this may be taken as a sign of legitimate communication. If an autistic person is asked if they want an apple. They may respond by saying, “Apple.” When dealing with individuals with normal speech patterns, this would normally be an affirmative answer. However, if the questioner then asks if the autistic person wants nothing, they may respond, “Nothing.” In such ca
