Question
My 31 month old son who is getting speech therapy is starting to repeat what is asked of him. He won't do it with things he already knows like his name or how old he is. His speech therapist tells me this is echolalia and she doesn't think that he has any
Answer
It might be helpful to think about some differences between the types of echolalia associated with autism and the verbal repetitions that are part of typical early language development. You and your speech-language pathologist can look at (1) the quantity of repetitions (and if their frequency decreases over time), and (2) the quality of the repetitions (and if they are accompanied by signs of engagement like smiles, looks and gestures).
In her 1979 article, "Echolalia: Issues and Clinical Applications," Adriana Schuler discussed verbal repetitions as typical developmental behavior, and reviewed some reasons why children repeat. She noted that children may repeat all or part of their own utterances, as well as the utterances of other children during play and the utterances of adults. It is common to hear children producing modifications, alterations and expansions of adult utterances. Children may "borrow" utterances as a way to reduce the difficulty involved in creating their own verbalizations. Repeating may be a form of rehearsal, and/or it may help process incoming language by allowing children to hold information in memory a little bit longer. Repetitions are to be expected when the incoming language is difficult to understand (e.g., unfamiliar words, complex sentences). Also, repetitions might serve as fillers while a child is thinking of what to say next. Sometimes children might even repeat a word or phrase because they liked the way it sounded and want to hear it again!
If your child is a late talker/late bloomer, it will be important to give him plenty of opportunities to initiate talk. If he is frequently placed in a responder role because communication partners are asking him questions, you are more likely to hear verbal repetitions. However, if there are times when people listen and wait for the child to initiate, and then respond in a meaningful way, there should be fewer opportunities for him to use verbal repetitions. (The book It Takes Two to Talk: A Practical Guide for Parents of Children with Language Delays is a wonderful resource.) It will also be important to observe the child closely to see if the repetitions gradually decrease as he adds more vocabulary and different types of phrases and sentences, and uses language for more varied social purposes.
References:
Pepper, J. & Weitzman, E. (2004) It Takes Two to Talk: A Practical Guide for Parents of
Children with Language Delays. Toronto, Ontario Canada: The Hanen Centre.
Schuler, A. (1979). Echolalia: Issues and Clinical Applications. Journal of Speech and
Hearing Disorders, 44, 411-434.
Dr. Lillian N. Stiegler has been a speech-language pathologist for 23 years. She is associate professor of communication sciences & disorders at Southeastern Louisiana University where she teaches courses on autism spectrum disorders, early language intervention, and neurophysiology. Dr. Stiegler resides in Covington, LA.
