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| Echolalia in Children with Autism |
Echolalia is the immediate or delayed echoing or repetition of whole, unanalyzed expressions or reciprocation. It
depends on the ability to remember streams of auditory signals and to reproduce them, processes that are related to
verbal short-term memory, the purpose of echolalia is unclear, but it has been believed to serve a number of functions,
including conversation maintenance, communication, self-soothing and verbal rehearsal. This tendency to repeat
phrases as unanalyzed wholes may persist into adulthood, even when language learning is presumably finish.
Many individuals with autism do develop speech. Unfortunately, not all children with autism develop functional speech.
Common speech abnormalities include echolalia (immediate or delayed repeating of information), unconventional word
use, and unusual tone, pitch, and articulation. Echolalia occurs in approximately 85% of children with autism who
eventually develop speech. Even when more complex speech is acquired, individuals with autism typically have poor
conversational skills. They may also have difficulty understanding common, nonverbal cues such as body language,
facial expressions, and eye contact. However, many of these individuals with autism do learn to communicate through
picture boards, computers, sign language, and other enhancements. Although communicative deficits can range from
mute to adequate speech with poor conversational skills, as many has 50% of individuals with autism fail to develop
functional spoken language abilities.
One of the traits in autism is a delay in or a lack of development of spoken language. Many children with autism are
initially referred for evaluation because of parents’ concerns about delayed language milestones, and the achievement of
these milestones appears to be strongly related to long-term prognosis. For example, using language productively and
flexibly by age five was the best single predictor of positive outcomes for a large sample of children with autism. Early
language development has not been studied extensively in autism. Children with autism often exhibit echolalia to a
greater degree than other children, with of without developmental disabilities.
Immediate Echolalia
Immediate echolalia appears to tap into the person’s short-term memory for auditory input. Immediate echolalia was
once defined as the meaningless repetition of a word or word group just spoken by another person. Researchers
determined that immediate echolalia often was used with clear evidence of purposeful communication. Persons with
autism who repeat what you just said (including the questions you ask) come to mind when we think of immediate
echolalia. The child who responds to, “Do you want a cookie?” with “Do you want a cookie?” may or may not want a
cookie. This is the bewildering world of immediate echolalia for the parent or teacher.
Immediate echolalia may be used with no intent or purpose or may have a very specific purpose for the individual.
Immediate echolalia may also be used to initiate or maintain interaction or may be used in a no interactive manner.
Knowing the person very well would appear to be the key to understanding their specific use of immediate echolalia.
Those who do speak often use language in unusual ways. Some seem unable to combine words into meaningful
sentences. Others repeat the same phrase no matter what the situation, or speak only single words.
Delayed Echolalia
Delayed echolalia has been defined as the “echoing of a phrase after some delay or lapse of time. Persons with autism
who repeat TV commercials, favorite movie scripts, or parental reprimands come to mind when we think of delayed
echolalia. Delayed echolalia appears to tap into long-term auditory memory, and for this reason, may be a different
phenomenon from immediate echolalia. Because it can involve the recitation of entire scripts, delayed echolalia, is often
thought to denote evidence of near genius intellect. This may or may not be the case.
Delayed echolalia may be interactive or no interactive and may be used with no intent or purpose or may have a very
specific purpose for the individual. There appears to be more potential functions for delayed echolalia than were found
for immediate echolalia. A key to understanding the specific use of delayed echolalia in any individual is awareness of
the individual’s daily behavior and familiarity with their verbalizations.
Echolalia Stereotypes
The common stereotype of a person with autism is that he or she is “in a world of their own.” Echolalia is one of those
easily identified symptoms which are so strangely different from what is termed “normal” that it seems to support the
stereotype. However, when one looks at the communicative nature of their echolalia, the stereotype begins to lose
credibility. Persons with autism do interact and do communicate; however, they do so in different ways. Most children
use echolalia as a normal way to learn language. The majority of children babble in rhythmic way, which is actually
mimicking the pattern of our language. Later, they copy sounds, words, and eventually phrases and sentences that they
hear adults use in specific, repetitive contexts.
Gestalt Language
Gestalt form of language is described as organized wholes rather than as of distinct parts, maintaining that the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts. Learning language in gestalt form would be learning it in chunks rather than the tiny
component sounds and specific meaning of each individual sound or word. For example, “Mommy” comes to mean
“Mommy” because of the whole of the experiences, that is, the smell of Mommy, the house where Mommy lives, the
shape of Mommy, the sound of Mommy, etc. Children begin to analyze the way language is used in other contexts and
come to understand that “Mommy” is a word that can represent other things besides the whole of their experience with
their specific “Mommy”. Echolalia was once thought of as just another inappropriate behavior to eliminate in a person
with autism; however, researchers currently see it as a developmental phenomenon that occurs within the child’s
normal cognitive and linguistic maturation.
Some researchers see language as occurring in stages in persons with autism, however, these stages are not real
delineations of time or accomplishment, and rather they merely help one to see a progression from echolalia learning
and language use.
Gestalt language acquisition does not just develop in persons with autism. It’s not just short cut in language. Gestalt
language acquisition comes from gestalt thinking or gestalt processing. One way of to describe it is the thought process
is like thinking in pictures. Persons with autism think and learn differently. This is the reason echolalia develops.
Persons with autism have may abilities which include: excellent rote memory for both visual and auditory information
and proficiency in tasks demanding visual spatial judgment and visual spatial pattern recognition. The special abilities
that posses.
Understanding Echolalia
Echolalia most likely is not something that we have unintentionally reinforced in the child with autism. It’s believed that
more than likely echolalia is something that is essentially rewarding to the child. It encourages the child to actually be
able to match what others say. Many children with autism become experts not just at echoing the content of what is
said by others but also the voice, inflexion, and manner in which the words were originally spoken. The value of
echolalia for the person may be that the echoed words and significant cues become stored information for the person to
refer to later as internal rehearsal of the event.
The presence of echolalia has actually been identified as a positive sign in persons with autism. It was found that the
presence of echolalia is an important predictor for future language growth. It was discovered that children with autism
who were echolalia developed good phrases speech later in life whether or not they received intensive language training.
Echolalia is one of the phases of normal language development, it would appear that continued echolalia indicates that
the person with autism is “stuck” at the level of development for a time but they seem to overcome it and develop more
normal speech patterns. Children, who were once mute and later develop good speech, inevitably have passes through
an echolalia stage in their speech development.
Far from being a useless practice, echolalia has actually been used to teach receptive naming of objects to persons with
autism. Regardless of the usefulness in echolalia for the autistic child the habit can interfere with social interaction and
learning. Therefore, most researchers focus on helping the person move to a more creative form of language. It’s noted
that the person with autism was more likely to use echolalia when he or she had not learned an appropriate response to
the question or command. Echolalia can be a persistent and annoying problem for persons with autism, their families,
and teachers. Echolalia is a functional step in the person with autism’s cognitive and language development.
depends on the ability to remember streams of auditory signals and to reproduce them, processes that are related to
verbal short-term memory, the purpose of echolalia is unclear, but it has been believed to serve a number of functions,
including conversation maintenance, communication, self-soothing and verbal rehearsal. This tendency to repeat
phrases as unanalyzed wholes may persist into adulthood, even when language learning is presumably finish.
Many individuals with autism do develop speech. Unfortunately, not all children with autism develop functional speech.
Common speech abnormalities include echolalia (immediate or delayed repeating of information), unconventional word
use, and unusual tone, pitch, and articulation. Echolalia occurs in approximately 85% of children with autism who
eventually develop speech. Even when more complex speech is acquired, individuals with autism typically have poor
conversational skills. They may also have difficulty understanding common, nonverbal cues such as body language,
facial expressions, and eye contact. However, many of these individuals with autism do learn to communicate through
picture boards, computers, sign language, and other enhancements. Although communicative deficits can range from
mute to adequate speech with poor conversational skills, as many has 50% of individuals with autism fail to develop
functional spoken language abilities.
One of the traits in autism is a delay in or a lack of development of spoken language. Many children with autism are
initially referred for evaluation because of parents’ concerns about delayed language milestones, and the achievement of
these milestones appears to be strongly related to long-term prognosis. For example, using language productively and
flexibly by age five was the best single predictor of positive outcomes for a large sample of children with autism. Early
language development has not been studied extensively in autism. Children with autism often exhibit echolalia to a
greater degree than other children, with of without developmental disabilities.
Immediate Echolalia
Immediate echolalia appears to tap into the person’s short-term memory for auditory input. Immediate echolalia was
once defined as the meaningless repetition of a word or word group just spoken by another person. Researchers
determined that immediate echolalia often was used with clear evidence of purposeful communication. Persons with
autism who repeat what you just said (including the questions you ask) come to mind when we think of immediate
echolalia. The child who responds to, “Do you want a cookie?” with “Do you want a cookie?” may or may not want a
cookie. This is the bewildering world of immediate echolalia for the parent or teacher.
Immediate echolalia may be used with no intent or purpose or may have a very specific purpose for the individual.
Immediate echolalia may also be used to initiate or maintain interaction or may be used in a no interactive manner.
Knowing the person very well would appear to be the key to understanding their specific use of immediate echolalia.
Those who do speak often use language in unusual ways. Some seem unable to combine words into meaningful
sentences. Others repeat the same phrase no matter what the situation, or speak only single words.
Delayed Echolalia
Delayed echolalia has been defined as the “echoing of a phrase after some delay or lapse of time. Persons with autism
who repeat TV commercials, favorite movie scripts, or parental reprimands come to mind when we think of delayed
echolalia. Delayed echolalia appears to tap into long-term auditory memory, and for this reason, may be a different
phenomenon from immediate echolalia. Because it can involve the recitation of entire scripts, delayed echolalia, is often
thought to denote evidence of near genius intellect. This may or may not be the case.
Delayed echolalia may be interactive or no interactive and may be used with no intent or purpose or may have a very
specific purpose for the individual. There appears to be more potential functions for delayed echolalia than were found
for immediate echolalia. A key to understanding the specific use of delayed echolalia in any individual is awareness of
the individual’s daily behavior and familiarity with their verbalizations.
Echolalia Stereotypes
The common stereotype of a person with autism is that he or she is “in a world of their own.” Echolalia is one of those
easily identified symptoms which are so strangely different from what is termed “normal” that it seems to support the
stereotype. However, when one looks at the communicative nature of their echolalia, the stereotype begins to lose
credibility. Persons with autism do interact and do communicate; however, they do so in different ways. Most children
use echolalia as a normal way to learn language. The majority of children babble in rhythmic way, which is actually
mimicking the pattern of our language. Later, they copy sounds, words, and eventually phrases and sentences that they
hear adults use in specific, repetitive contexts.
Gestalt Language
Gestalt form of language is described as organized wholes rather than as of distinct parts, maintaining that the whole is
greater than the sum of its parts. Learning language in gestalt form would be learning it in chunks rather than the tiny
component sounds and specific meaning of each individual sound or word. For example, “Mommy” comes to mean
“Mommy” because of the whole of the experiences, that is, the smell of Mommy, the house where Mommy lives, the
shape of Mommy, the sound of Mommy, etc. Children begin to analyze the way language is used in other contexts and
come to understand that “Mommy” is a word that can represent other things besides the whole of their experience with
their specific “Mommy”. Echolalia was once thought of as just another inappropriate behavior to eliminate in a person
with autism; however, researchers currently see it as a developmental phenomenon that occurs within the child’s
normal cognitive and linguistic maturation.
Some researchers see language as occurring in stages in persons with autism, however, these stages are not real
delineations of time or accomplishment, and rather they merely help one to see a progression from echolalia learning
and language use.
Gestalt language acquisition does not just develop in persons with autism. It’s not just short cut in language. Gestalt
language acquisition comes from gestalt thinking or gestalt processing. One way of to describe it is the thought process
is like thinking in pictures. Persons with autism think and learn differently. This is the reason echolalia develops.
Persons with autism have may abilities which include: excellent rote memory for both visual and auditory information
and proficiency in tasks demanding visual spatial judgment and visual spatial pattern recognition. The special abilities
that posses.
Understanding Echolalia
Echolalia most likely is not something that we have unintentionally reinforced in the child with autism. It’s believed that
more than likely echolalia is something that is essentially rewarding to the child. It encourages the child to actually be
able to match what others say. Many children with autism become experts not just at echoing the content of what is
said by others but also the voice, inflexion, and manner in which the words were originally spoken. The value of
echolalia for the person may be that the echoed words and significant cues become stored information for the person to
refer to later as internal rehearsal of the event.
The presence of echolalia has actually been identified as a positive sign in persons with autism. It was found that the
presence of echolalia is an important predictor for future language growth. It was discovered that children with autism
who were echolalia developed good phrases speech later in life whether or not they received intensive language training.
Echolalia is one of the phases of normal language development, it would appear that continued echolalia indicates that
the person with autism is “stuck” at the level of development for a time but they seem to overcome it and develop more
normal speech patterns. Children, who were once mute and later develop good speech, inevitably have passes through
an echolalia stage in their speech development.
Far from being a useless practice, echolalia has actually been used to teach receptive naming of objects to persons with
autism. Regardless of the usefulness in echolalia for the autistic child the habit can interfere with social interaction and
learning. Therefore, most researchers focus on helping the person move to a more creative form of language. It’s noted
that the person with autism was more likely to use echolalia when he or she had not learned an appropriate response to
the question or command. Echolalia can be a persistent and annoying problem for persons with autism, their families,
and teachers. Echolalia is a functional step in the person with autism’s cognitive and language development.
| ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2004 Bright Tots® Inc. - Educational Toys & Resource Guide to Child Development - All rights reserved. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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