You may have heard your therapist or doctor use the word “echolalia” to describe your child’s language. But what does echolalia really mean? When is it a good thing and how can we build on it? 

First things first! 

What is echolalia? 

Echolalia is simply the repeating or echoing of what someone else has said. This can be repeating sounds, words, phrases, or sentences.  Repeating words is a normal part of language development in young children! Children repeat single words when learning how to speak from those around them. After learning these single words, young children will start to string them together to speak in phrases and eventually sentences. Children learn to use language by repeating what they hear around them. Then, as their language skills increase, they start making up their own utterances more and you see the use of echoing or repeating decline. 

Children between the ages of 1-2 years should be echoing or imitating you often. That’s how they are learning. However, by age two you should see them begin using their own utterances as well.  
 

Types of Echolalia 

Immediate Echolalia – when someone immediately imitates something they have heard.  For example, you might say “what is it?”, and the child repeats “what is it?”.  Sometimes, in echolalia, the child echos the entire sentence, and other times, they repeat the last couple of words in a sentence.  An example of this would be “what do you want for lunch.  Pizza or sandwich?” and the child says “sandwich”.  If you switch up the choices and say “sandwich or pizza” they will say “pizza”. 

Delayed Echolalia – when the words are repeated at a later time. For example, a child who says, “do you want to go outside?” when they are getting their shoes on.  This is likely a phrase they have heard many times, that is linked with that routine.  Delayed echolalia might also consist of lyrics to a song, line from a favorite book or movie. 

Scripting – when children can recite long lines or scenes from shows, cartoons or movies.  

What do I need to know? 

Children may use echolalia because they are learning language differently: Typically developing children tend to begin learning language by first understanding and using single words, and then they gradually string them together to make phrases and sentences. 

Some children’s first attempts at language may be longer “chunks” of language (phrases or sentences), which they are not able to break down into smaller parts. These chunks are more grammatically complicated than they could put together themselves, and they don’t understand what the individual words mean. 

Echolalia often has a purpose or message: 

• To ask for things – a child might say “Do you want a cookie?” to ask for a cookie, as he’s heard others offer cookies this way before) 

• To start an interaction or keep it going – for example a child might initiate a game of Hide and Seek by saying a line from the game, like “Ready or not, here I come!” 

• To draw someone’s attention to something – a child might draw attention to something he’s noticed by using a line he’s heard before to draw attention to something else, like “It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman!”) 

• To protest something – if a child imitates “You don’t want to wear those pants?” as his parent is getting out his clothes, he might really mean “I don’t want to wear those pants” 

• To answer yes – if a child imitates “Do you want some yogurt?” right after he’s been asked that question, he may actually want some yogurt and really mean “yes” 

• Self-stimulatory – Some children use echolalia because they find it comforting. We call this self-stimulatory because they are finding ways to provide themselves with stimulation that makes them feel good. Some children flap their hands or rock back and forth as a self-stimulatory behavior. We call this “stimming” for short. There are also children who use echolalia as a form of stimming. 

Echolalia can be a stepping stone to more purposeful and flexible language:  

Researchers who study echolalia have noticed patterns in the way it progresses in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: 

• Initially, children echo “chunks” of language without understanding what they mean 

• Then, children start to modify these chunks of language. They mix and recombine words and phrases they have used (this is called “mitigated echolalia”). 

• As they start to understand more language, some children use shorter sentences or just use one or two words to express themselves. 

• Gradually, language becomes more spontaneous and flexible. Echolalia might be used occasionally, especially when a child is tired, confused or frustrated. But more words and phrases are used appropriately and flexibly once the child’s understanding increases. 

What can I do to help? 

We can help children who use echolalia by helping them learn to break down longer chunks of language and understand what the individual words mean so they can use them more flexibly. 

• Treat any language delays – work with a speech language pathologist to treat any areas of language that are delayed. This could include targeting increasing vocabulary and ability to answer questions. 

• Model the correct sentence to provide an appropriate model – For example, if the child comes up to you and says “hold you?”. You can say “Will you hold me?” and encourage the child to repeat it back to you. 

• When echoing questions – choose one question type to focus on at first. Ask the question and then immediately say the answer with a single word (without pausing) to provide a model. 

• Provide a sentence stem or the beginning sound of the answer to your question to encourage generating the language to answer the question. 

Echolalia can be confusing. But by understanding why children use it and how it serves as a bridge to more flexible language, you will be better equipped to help a child who uses echolalia. Remember, echolalia is not a bad thing! Verbal speech in any form is great! We can view echolalia as a bridge to more flexible language. 

Sources: 

• The Hanen Centre – 3 Things you Should Know about Echolalia by Lauren Lowry 

• Speech and Language Kids 

• Reframing Echolalia In Autism: It’s Not a Bad Thing! – Autism Little Learners