What is echolalia Asha?
Echolalia is the repetition of utterances produced by others. There are two types of echolalia—immediate and delayed. Immediate echolalia refers to utterances that are repeated immediately or after a brief delay.
Echolalia serves a variety of communicative purposes.
Echolalia provides a way for people with autism to affirm, call, request, label, protest, relate information, complete verbal routines and give directives.
You may have heard toddlers mimic noises and words when they hear others speak. This repetition or imitation of sounds, phrases, or words is called echolalia. The term comes from the Greek words “echo” and “lalia,” which mean “to repeat speech”.
Echolalia Meaning: Echolalia is the term used to describe when a child repeats or imitates what someone else has said. Echolalia Examples: Immediate Echolalia: Sometimes a child repeats your question instead of answering it. If you say, “Do you want a cookie?”, the child says “cookie” instead of “yes”.
Echoic behavior is commonly found in neurotypical children below the age of 30 months [55,56] and is widely speculated to be a normal phase of language development [55,56,57,58,59].
Echolalia is the repetition of words spoken by others, whereas palilalia is the automatic repetition of one's own words.
Echolalia means that your child is repeating what they hear in an automatic way. It is a behavior of children who are presenting as being on the autism spectrum, but it doesn't always mean that your child has Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Echolalia is the precise repetition (echoing out loud) of words and sounds. Echolalia can be a symptom of aphasia, dementia, traumatic brain injury, and schizophrenia, but it is most often associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Treating Echolalia
The best way to help your child with their echolalia, no matter what type or form they present, is to contact a specialist. With the help of a speech therapist and a high-quality ABA therapy program, your child can learn how to expand their language skills.
Individuals with ADHD may experience speech and language difficulties. These may include echolalia, or the repeating of words or phrases spoken by others. While echolalia is more common in individuals with ASD, it can also occur in those with ADHD.
What triggers echolalia?
As with autism, no one really knows the cause of echolalia. If it develops as an adult it could be due to head trauma or severe amnesia and manifests itself when they are relearning their language skills. Some people, even those with autism, only experience the symptoms when they are anxious or extremely stressed.
For a child with autism, stimming might involve motor tics like rocking back and forth, licking lips, flapping hands, or repetitive blinking. It may also verbal tics like grunting, or repeating words or phrases, a behavior known as scripting or echolalia.

The key to helping a child who uses echolalia is to figure out the meaning behind the echolalia, and then respond in a way that helps them learn. You can do this by being your child's “detective”, and then being their interpreter.
Echolalia is the echoing or repetition of sounds or words. It's a crucial part of language development in children. Echolalia can be a sign in neurodivergent children that can last longer than toddlerhood. It can also be a result of neurological problems.
The phenomenon of echolalia in autism and Asperger's syndrome1 has been well documented. However, few studies have attributed functionality to the structure of echolalia or have investigated the clinical use of this phenomenon in speech therapy for patients fitting this profile.
While mannerisms such as random humming or screaming are known as vocal stims, echolalia and palilalia are known as verbal stimming. This is because vocal stimming involves the use of sounds other than talking, whereas verbal stimming usually involves speech.
Logoclonia involves the repetition of the final syllable of words, whereas echolalia involves the automatic repetition of words that were just heard 5.
Echopraxia (which might also be called echokinesis or echomotism) is an involuntary imitation or repetition of someone else's actions. While echolalia is the involuntary repetition of language and sounds, echopraxia is the same but with actions. The word itself comes from Ancient Greek.
For example, you may observe someone yawning and then have the urge to yawn. However, when imitating others' actions occurs frequently and involuntarily later in adolescence or as an adult, it could be echopraxia.
Echolalia | behavioural disorder | Britannica.
Is echolalia a mental disorder?
Echolalia is a symptom of brain damage or psychiatric disorders, and the person with echolalia may or may not be able to communicate normally or understand others. Children with autism and developmental disorders, as well as very young children, may exhibit echolalia.
Echolalia is a normal part of speech and language development. It improves over the first two years of life. Pathological echolalia persists beyond the age of 3 years.
A doctor can prescribe antidepressants or anxiety medications to combat the side effects of echolalia. This doesn't treat the condition itself, but it helps keep the person with echolalia calm.
- Avoid responding with sentences that will result in echolalia. ...
- Use a carrier phrase softly spoken while modeling the correct response: “You say, (quietly spoken), ' want car. ...
- Teach “I don't know” to sets of questions the child does not know the answers to.
The key to helping a child who uses echolalia is to figure out the meaning behind the echolalia, and then respond in a way that helps him learn. You can do this by being your child's “detective”, and then being his interpreter.
Yes, adults can develop echolalia. While most children with echolalia are autistic or have other developmental issues, adults who develop echolalia are more likely to experience it as the result of a stroke, brain injury, mental illness, or a form of dementia.
Echolalia may be made much worse when someone is feeling anxious or distressed, although some people can experience it all the time in more severe cases. Adults who have had a head trauma or who have severe amnesia may experience echolalia while they are learning how to speak and communicate again.
In the case of vocal stimming (or verbal stimming), the child might make noises such as groaning, grunting, high- pitched screeching, squealing, humming, or repeating random words, words to a familiar song, phrases, or lines from a movie.
The DSM-V defines catatonia as the presence of three or more of the following: Catalepsy, waxy flexibility, stupor, agitation, mutism, negativism, posturing, mannerisms, stereotypies, grimacing, echolalia, and echopraxia[28].
Language Development
In typically developing children, echolalia peaks at 30 months and fades by the time the child is 3 years old. Often echolalia is a developmental step in an autistic child's language and cognitive development; about 75% of children with ASD exhibit echolalia [NIH].
What are examples of echolalia in autism?
Many children on the autism spectrum use echolalia, which means they repeat others' words or sentences. They might repeat the words of familiar people (parents, teachers), or they might repeat sentences from their favourite video. When children repeat words right after they hear them, it's known as immediate echolalia.
The common understanding of scripting is a child reciting lines from a favourite TV show or movie. It can also be echolalia where the child repeats whatever you say. Children might also script as they talk to themselves in the mirror or it might be used in a functional way, Jehan says.
- Understand the function of the behaviour. Think about the function of the repetitive behaviour or obsession. ...
- Modify the environment. ...
- Increase structure. ...
- Manage anxiety. ...
- Intervene early. ...
- Set boundaries. ...
- Example. ...
- Provide alternatives.
Echopraxia (which might also be called echokinesis or echomotism) is an involuntary imitation or repetition of someone else's actions. While echolalia is the involuntary repetition of language and sounds, echopraxia is the same but with actions. The word itself comes from Ancient Greek.
Echolalia is the repetition of words spoken by others, whereas palilalia is the automatic repetition of one's own words.
Echolalia means that your child is repeating what they hear in an automatic way. It is a behavior of children who are presenting as being on the autism spectrum, but it doesn't always mean that your child has Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Echolalia is not common in children with ADHD, but it can occur. One way it presents in people with ADHD is as a stim (self-stimulation behavior).
Individuals with ADHD may experience speech and language difficulties. These may include echolalia, or the repeating of words or phrases spoken by others. While echolalia is more common in individuals with ASD, it can also occur in those with ADHD.
Applied behavior analytic interventions for echolalia in ASD include cues-pause-point training, script training, visual cues, gestalt learning, verbal modeling, self-monitoring training, differential reinforcement of lower rates of behavior, and positive reinforcement for appropriate responses.
Speech therapies
A behavioral intervention called “cues-pause-point” is often used for intermediate echolalia. In this treatment, the speech therapist asks the person with echolalia to answer a question correctly and tells them they'll point to them when it's time to answer.
Do kids grow out of echolalia?
Developmental echolalia typically ends around three years old as your child learns to string words and phrases together on their own to communicate. However, if your child continues repeating words and phrases after the toddler years, it could signify that your child has autism.
The short answer to your question is no. Echolalia is not only associated with Autism, but also with several other conditions, including congenital blindness, intellectual disability, developmental delay, language delay, Tourette's syndrome, schizophrenia and others.