Echolalia | Tips from a Speech Therapist 

Echolalia is often a precursor to full verbal speech (supported by research), and represents the autistic brain attempting to developmentally reroute. It should be encouraged as much as possible, especially when the alternative is the child not speaking at all.

Thank you for this video. My child struggles badly with this.

Definitely keep making videos. Your information and therapy videos are invaluable for parents, Speech Pathology students, other Health Professionals and the general community. Thank you for your generosity and kindness! You are a gem.

Thank you for your videos! My child who's almost three has improved so much in the cognitive area and with his expressive language skills. Where he was at one point delayed. But after watching your videos he has really improved so much! I have talked to a lot of parents and they have also expressed the same concerns as you spoke about. But a lot of them say it started when the pandemic hit just like with my son. He used to be a extrovert before the pandemic. You couldn't even tell he was the same child. He had completely shut down. My husband and I are now happy parents. Thanks again,

PLEASE do not ignore echolalia. The child is trying to communicate. Please look at Dr. Barry Prizant's language research and Marge Blanc's articles and book. Educate yourself on gestalt language processors vs. analytic language processors.

Thank you. This one the best video I found on the topic.

Our 5 year old autistic son has a tendency to use echolalia (And palalia) quite a bit. Sometimes it's immediate and other times it is quite delayed. The other day he heard a video and it said *Oh my God, it's Mr. Peabody and Sherman!* Well, for the next three hours (With just a few breaks) he kept repeating it over and over again. At one time I thought he was going to quit for good, and when he restarted again I made the mistake of saying *Oh, sh*t*. Well, then he started saying the Peabody and Sherman line followed by the Oh Sh*t line right after it. Luckily, we didn't have to go anywhere that day.

Thank you. This was so helpful

Thank you sooo much

Haha makes alot of sense to me. I'll have to change my daily routine now. My son I pretty much my life so all info is great

Got it. Ignore the repeating and praise when they answer you back. I think some of it has to do with receptive language.

Thanx a lot. More power

My daughter used to answer questions tho. This just started two weeks ago and shes almost 3

Great book!

My son is 3 1/2 and he is able to absorb a lot from nursery rhymes, educational videos, etc. He is able to answer questions like what is this, but if it's something like "what's your name?", it depends if he is "in the mood". He is bright, I have no doubt about that, but I am hoping he develops independent speech soon so he can be preschool ready. I made him a channel so I can also informally document his progress - Baby Savie

Thanks ☺

I cant read infront of our class i cant say anyting.But when im alone i can read the book loudly

Thanks for the info, my daughter needs 1x type.

Any advice here would be greatly appreciated. Here's what's going on: Within the past couple of years, my mother seems to have developed both Echolalia and Palialia, but what I find unusual about it, is that she voluntarily repeats what she just heard or said in a very loud and dramatic singing voice. I understand that it may just be a verbal tic (?) however 3 things bother me. 1.) it's beginning to seriously grate on my nerves and is extremely cringy to me. 2.) I've read this can be a sign of early alzheimers disease 3.) I know how she is and I'm afraid she'll become very defensive if I confront her about it. I personally suffer from misophonia so any unnecessary noise really bothers me, hence her unnecessary and over dramatic singing makes me want to punch a hole through a wall. Thoughts?

Thanks for sharing this thing... My kid has nasalised speech she speak everything but most of her sounds aren't correct and she talks from her nose rather than throat.. I hope you're getting my point!.. Drs say she has resonance in her speech plz share some tips how to make her speak from throat and how to reduce resonance? Kindly make a video on this too

Thank you.

My son also copy! So that's great ☺️

This was helpful

Ok, so im trying to figure this out haha. I tend to say the noise out loud that matched whatever im doing. Lets say i were to poke a stick into a bag of concrete to open it. Without knowing what im doing i immediately say "pop" or if i open a creaky door i say "creak" or something similar. Is this echolalia? I also tend to repeat phrases from movies and tv shows to fit my conversations and repeat words quietly to myself. Im not sure if thats what it is or not haha. I literally only noticed it when someone pointed it out to me. Generally it happens more when im uncomfortable

My son does both! He answers questions, but also repeats them sometimes. Hmm. Haha. He also follows directions too though.

My daughter has a speech delay, but greatly improved. She is 3 1/2 years old. I worried about autism 18 mths back due to delay and no finger pointing. My daughter can answer questions, but if she asks something and you give answer, she says it back. She frequently asks what colour something is, despite knowing all colours. Is it possible to have the echoalia and delay and that it was not autism and just a speech delay?

My 4 yrs old daughter has echolalia, especially when she does not understand a question, and is speech delayed. She sometimes initiates discussions, asks things, understands many commands, responds to her name, points at things, can count to 100 and knows all the alphabet. but has difficulties answering where, when and why questions. She has been working with a speech therapy for a year now, but I still do not know if her echolalia is a red flag for autism or just a way for her to improve her syntax and whole language. I am lost. How can I help her stp echoing?

im 15 and i tend to notice myself repeating what other people say multiple times in my head involuntarily after they say it and I looked it up and now I'm wondering if I have this or is it only for smaller children? i have a suspicion that I have adhd and I've read that the two can be associated together so maybe that's it but I haven't convinced my mom to take me to get tested for adhd yet so idk

Wow! My son does this.....

I need more ideas to make my child answering questions like what are you doing

My son starting doing that at 18 years old

Wasn't sure how I felt about the word 'concern'.. Maybe 'sign' or 'indicator' or 'something to think on'?? Maybe it's just me. Great video anyway, you seem great at your job! :

I have a question please help, my weakness is teaching kids.. in covid starting time my son was 1 and half year old he hasnt seen pretty much any peers or had interacted with anyone for 2 years.. looking after him was one person.. my husband or me( we take opposite duties) i was bad at talking to baby.. so I literally do everything.. until he hit age 3 i guess my new mom phase grow out and start talking to him.. now he is 3 year and 10 months ( almost 4) he don’t talk that much.. will say simple sentences ( ex: want water, mommy come , grandpa wait, i want chocolate) but he knows numbers/shapes/ fruits/ animals.. lots of songs, write alphabets and read.. took him to early childhood school.. and speech therapist said echolilia is a red flag and he has high functioning autism.. but my question is since he started late in the talk training due to covid/ not seeing anyone and not hearing much talking in the house can this echolilia started delayed??? He does pretend play.. he does hand stuff to his young brother.. he will say hai and smile to everyone when we go out to walk.. will interact with my cousin’s child .. has eye contact.. only problem i am seeing is he don’t communicate.. his score was boarder line on everything.. 29 on one score and scored 89 overall.. speech therapist said 90 to 100 is very mild to normal and my son scored 89 .. will there a margin of error in this case??? I dont take hime to officially diagnose because i dont want a label on my kid.. one of my friend said her brother was not officially diagnosed.. because of that he has a high IT job in fedaral.. if he was diagnosed officially he would not get that job.. so please answer .. if its possible its just the speech delap due to me being weak interacting with him?

Hi there my 5 years 3 months child repeats few words twice or thrice in the begining of sentence . Few easy words which she is able to talk later . Being a mother i am worried do i need a therapist. TIA

What is the typical timeframe with therapy for echolalia to go away? Can you “cure” echolalia or is it that kids kinda grow out of it over time with therapy? Are there specialized therapists that work with echolalia kids? Thank you! My son has it and his therapist have been no help I am looking to change to a different therapist.

What's some good tools I could use to help my autistic child who repeats everything they themselves say?

I have an 15 yos son with Autism he was non verbal most of his life but now he's doing Echolalia. Any more help you can provide would help

Is it considered echolalia if they repeat what you say just once, or over and over? Or is it echolalia either way?

My 3 yo daughter has autism and echolalia abd we followed your advice not to repeat. When she pulls me to the kitchen she does not point or label things like juice even when I repeat it to her, I started writing it and underlining and scrolling her finger through the word as I read it to her until she says it, I also did this with asking her name name about 100 x until she learned to respond to it. She use to say juice but no longer I am trying to teach her 1 word at a time. Would you have a way I can teach her to request for things?

Echolalia is an important precusor for gestalt language learners. It also carries meaning for the communicator even if the context is not immediatley clear. Meet them where they are at and please do not try to snuff out the echolalia.

Hi can you do a video about adenoids and tonsil Does it cause speech delay

I'm 16 but still have these but rather I repeat people words and tone in my head I had it around 8-9 when I use to mumble and repeat

I think my grandson is starting to do this , he’s been having speech therapy .. so when my daughter told me that my grandson has been trying to or copies what they say I knew it was this UGH .. also they are in CA and are getting divorced so they will be moving here back to Boston with me. . His speech therapy stopped why? No idea .. back on the waiting list makes no sense .. then when they are back in Boston , back to square one ... my poor grandson 😪😪😪😪😪 my heart is breaking

No one "has" autism... We're autistic people. Please also change the language you use with words like "red flags", "concerns" etc when referring to prediagosed behaviors. -Stop deciding that these things are negatives and please, please stop teaching that these things are negatives to those that are caring for and raising these dynamically valid people. These are our building blocks, our comforts and our ways of communicating, our ways of navigating in a world with a society unwelcoming and rigid in their acceptance of others. We're not defective humans we're simply humans and we have our own ways of doing many of the same things NT's do. I have never understood NT's agenda to force those different from them into MIMICKING everything they do (and yet echolalia is a "red flag"??) You're forcing your ideals upon brains that work differently than yours and you have no idea or, no care, to what that does to the autistic individual. This "reward" based system isn't reward at all. Do as I say or you're ignored... So, an ignore system...seriously? Because your tone has upward inflection and you've a smile on your face you think you're in the right? You're helping? What you're doing is teaching that these individual's natural mechanisms for communication, response, processing and comfort will not be tolerated; you're teaching intolerance toward their dynamic traits and there is no reward in that, make no mistake. Especially if you knew what it took for an autist to perform your demands. SMH. There are reasons why our suicide rates are higher than NT's...depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders etc are the actual red flags and it's not by OUR design. We're responding to your ideals.

My son is neurotypical, but he echoes noises? For instance: a door creaking. It's very strange and as a new Mom, I don't fully understand it... do you have any input on this? Much appreciated!

My daughter does Echolalia. She copies what we say and copies her favorite Disney movies and Winnie the Pooh. She does other good things. But I am worried. Our doctor said it is normal for a two year old and wait until three, but she seems to do it a lot. Can you do a video (with toddler examples, or video of a toddler with echolalia) and tell how much is too much. If I say "say I want some milk." She says "Say I want some milk."

Thank you for your video. My 3.5 year old echos a lot but not always. For the "What is/where is" questions, he is good with his responses. Can answer a bunch of flash cards. But for questions like "Do you want Apple" He says 'No no apple" if he doesn't want. But says "Apple" if he wants, quite rarely he says "Yes" He is unable to comprehend questions like "what did you have for snack/lunch/dinner?" But a question like "What do you want for breakfast" He will say "croissant/milk/cereal.." based on his preference. His expressive language is quite minimal at the moment. He tells me if he is hurt etc but quite minimal. He does repeat a couple of songs etc he watches on TV, but not clearly/fully. I am a bit lost, if he is just developing his language skills, very slowly or if something is not going well for him. I am trying hard to speak to a SLP but with Covid, waitlists are very long and as he is not ASD, its hard to get on priority list. Please help with any suggestions.

What can we do for delayed echolalia mam?

How many years does this stage last in the child?

Where I can find you

Is this a form or echolaiia. I know a woman 65 year old an example of the way she talks ( usually on the phone) ie: I care about you, I care about you, (pause) yea,yea, I care about you, I care, icare (pause) I care about you. This is one small example.

Unsure whether you’ll see this but let’s see 😂 I have autism and when I speak a sentence, I silently mouth what I just said a second time without my own knowing. I have no idea exactly what I do but I’ve been told I do this, every RU-vid video says Echolalia is repeating others sentences or words. I only ever repeat my own, silently mouthing, rather than speaking aloud. I’d love to know what diagnosis this fits and how I can stop doing it, I’m also curious what it looks like when I do this (without filming myself) PLEASE HELP

I have Tourette’s echolalia I repeat phrases from people or anything I hear

What do you do for a 6 year old that repeats randomly things they have seen on cartoons/TV?

Please reas resseting your child brain by dr dunkly for ure kid it will help!!

Thank you very much, great videos, my child doesn't repeat what I said, but she repeats sentences over and over again, especially when she wants things. for example, I want to go to the swimming pool and keep repeating this until we reach the swimming pool, is this consider Echolalia ? she is 5 yrs old.

If every child with echolia had autism plz clarify this doubt mam plz

My daughter is 12 and still has not moved passed echolalia and its sad.

My 3 years talk nonsense language how do I get to stop and speak English?

Hi mam my son age 3.6 diagnosed with ASD continuously sings rhymes while dng any activity too , specially wheels on the bus all the time,can u pls guide me how to reduce repetation of rhymes n divert him ...thanks in advance,pls reply mam...

I tell people my mom is a human tape recorder. I am her caregiver. She has schizophrenia, but she does this. She will repeat whatever she heard at a later date. She is functional and can answer questions straight away, but she also repeats things alot lol.

how to teach them

My grandson is already 2 1/2 years old and he is not saying any single word but he understands whatever we are saying to him. He never copy any of the words that we are trying for him to copy. He had an evaluation six months ago never happen again because my daughter end up paying for everything.

Is it normal for a 5y/o to have this kind of illness?

I see you describing echolalia as meaningless but it absoloutley is not meaningless! Please look into gestalt language learners

I feel alone in this, he is 4 he is repeating all the time I have a list of therapists to go and my insurance is not good enogh, I AM NOT A THERAPIST so is so hard for me and frustrating for him and me :(

My daughter copys everything but she's not talking yet shes 3 going on 4

Is it echolalia when a white person cannot resist the urge to talk ghetto when around lots of black people? By my house there is a Burger King that has mostly black employees and 2 white ones. Both talk ghetto but never did when they first started working there. Next to Burger King is a McDonald's which employees mostly Mexicans and there is this one black girl, a manager that talks like she's from East LA, which I find very odd. It seems impulsive and mindless. There is a white guy in his 30's, also a manager at that McDonald's that does it, too. I find it incredibly strange to be that impressionable that you have a hard time not talking like Cheech from Up In Smoke around Mexicans. It sounds retarded. I can't help roll my eyes when I hear it

The ableism in this video is absolutely disgusting.

Only talking no real wayyy....in dis video..only definition of echolalia

I'm a behaviour therapist and work with children with ASDs. To manage echolalia you overtalk the child. Ex, therapist - 'this is a BALL'. Child - 'this i...' Therapist - immediately overtalks child and says 'BALL' . Then repeats BALL, Again repeats BBBALL, Lastly repeats BBBAALLLL. Hopefully the child will repeat; if not, we say 'that's what you say' THEN we move on. We only remove attention when a behavior is inappropriate otherwise we need to teach or the child will never learn. Echolalia needs to be interrupted therefore and not dismissed.

My daughter used to answer questions tho. This just started two weeks ago and shes almost 3

I'm 16 but still have these but rather I repeat people words and tone in my head I had it around 8-9 when I use to mumble and repeat