What is Echolalia? 

My favorite form of echolalia is actually one that my gf participates in, one day I had a meltdown and when nonverbal and she was calming me down by showing me things in Breath of the Wild, and a character made this noise when she talked to her (as legend of Zelda characters do) and it was a hum, so I could make the noise without speaking. So I started repeating it and when she caught on she made the noise back, and now we go back and forth with it all the time and it's extremely comforting

Echolalia can be useful for learning a foreign language by mimicking the accent/pronunciation of the language by native speakers of that language but it isn't perfect.

A relatives two children did this Disney style. They were a boy and girl, age 4-6. Their conversations were only lines from Disney shows. When you asked a question they answered only with lines from their shows. They talked to each other in lines from their shows only too, continuously. I was mesmerized. That was a long time ago, years later I learned this was part of Autism and Echolalia.

My personal favorite form of echolalia manifests when I spend a couple days hanging out with my friend from Jamaica. I will spend at least a few hours speaking in patois. Even the verbal thoughts running through my head will be in patois. With an accent and everything! Oh yeah, and I talk myself though tasks all the time, as well as self stim by repeating lines from movies or stand up comedy. I can spend many hours laughing just from telling myself the same Mitch Hedberg jokes over and over.

How’s this for a nice little piece of echolalia-related, gender stereotype-defying ironic hilarity: I am a 51 year old man and I can sing every song (btw, my voice is pretty good) from Moana, including the words I don’t understand in Tokelauan from the song We Know the Way. There are so many mind-bogglingly deep truths embedded within that piece of music, story and animation (that scene in particular, but also the whole movie) that it’s impossible to articulate. But I have tears in my eyes every time I see it that scene, which is going on 100 by now, I’m sure. I think when I had the big realization about my condition, that is exactly how I felt. Like running out of the cave and yelling *”we were voyagers!!!”* at the top of my lungs.

It's more fun to say "Echo- Lah-lee-uh" to me because it's similar to 'Lollipop'. When I was a kid I was always told I am more mature for my age. Really, I couldn't make friends and hung out more with adults. I learned how to talk in situations from listening to the adults instead of my peers, but was mostly mute. I used songs when I younger and thought it was normal to sing answers, or repeat phrases from shows I liked as responses in similar situations. I do walk myself through tasks as well. Also love your channel, you're videos have helped me and some family understand me a bit better.

I don't know if this fits within echolalia, but when i need some time to think about my response to what someone else is saying, i often repeat that what the other said, to "mask" my own processing time. Most of the other things you've mentioned i kinda recognise to a lesser extent as well. But mostly when i'm alone, i tend to narrate my life, especially when i'm having a bad day, it helps me actually to keep on being active and take care of myself.

I do/have (?) immediate echolalia when watching movies or tv.

I don't think I have echolalia (as far as I have noticed) but I do *hate* myself for picking up other people's mannerisms extremely quickly - which is very surprising to me because I don't interact with people a lot.

I tend to repeat words or phrases that I find enjoyable in movies or shows I watch, or when I repeat to myself but I think that’s palilalia (?)

I was often caught sitting somewhere (in a restaurant or something of that sort) with relatives with me noticing something someone else said and me quietly but unconsciously repeating a whole phrase or just single words. My older sister always thought I was mocking on people but I truly wasn't, I just did that for some weird reason. Now, I think I know why.

Thank you so much for this video! I had no idea what this was before watching so wasn't expecting this to describe something I experience. Ever since watching the cookie crisp advert as a child, whenever I hear anyone say something to the effect of 'that looks like *something*' I can't help adding 'tastes like it too, but it's a breakfast cerial!' I don't know what it is about that sentence that's made it stick in my had for so long but I guess it's the rhythm of it.

For instance; Impressionists or Impersonators use echolalia as a skill -- perhaps. I do it a lot; and usually in the voice of person or character who said it . . .

I think I do this mostly when I'm trying to process something. Usually it will be later when I'm going over something I said or something that was said to me - I'll repeat it, a few times, exactly how it was stated. And like you mentioned, I'll often remember the exact way that something was spoken, even years later, especially if it was something that bothered me. Something else that happens to me quite often is that weird words or names get stuck in my head. A lot like how a song can get stuck, but a song is pretty common, I think. I have a feeling that since the word sounds odd to me, I have trouble processing it, hence it getting stuck in my head. But that's just my theory. The strangest time was with a name. For a number of years, every once in a while this name would pop into my head and keep coming up over the day and even for up to a week. Yul Brenner. And for the longest time, I was just like... I don't know what that is. Stop repeating in my head already. Lol. One day, I watched Cool Runnings, which I hadn't seen since I was a kid. And there he was... Yul Brenner. They even said his name with a Jamaican accent (just like how I heard it replayed in my head so many times and couldn't figure out why it was so specific). Do you ever have words repeat, over and over, in your head? I think it's kind of more annoying than a song. Because it's like... why? At least the song is catchy, so it makes more sense. With a word, it's like, "yes, brain, it's a weird word. Can we move on now?" Lol. 😣

Echolalia is really fun tbh, I love that it's one of the symptoms that overlap with adhd because it's a way for me to relate to my autistic friends! I do a lot of the self stimulating echolalia, it's a kind of stimming for me tbh, but I also will just sometimes just see my cats and say stuff that I relate to them like "baby" "tiny" "fat(in the most love filled way of course 💖)" or even just "cat". Not related to echolalia but I also do a lot of "mirroring" with them, I always blink at them since I found out what it means to cats, and sometimes I even blink to babies and people jfjfjdjija. I also like music a lot so sometimes I'll just start singing a little tune when I'm stressed out to relax myself, these days I really like "Isabella's Lullaby" from The Promised Neverland's soundtrack but I also used to sing the Detroit Become Human version of "Hold on just a little while longer". I also sometimes when I see a character with a leitmotif I know will just sing the leitmotif lol, or even just a character with a song I really associate with them hcjjdhdhah

Very interesting. You're so good at explaining things like this...very insightful

I do verbal completion ones sometimes. I also do alot of situational association, but I try to keep it to myself. Rehearsal I used to do alot but its gotten less as I got older. Self-direction starts to happen to me sometimes when i am getting into an overwhelm state. I also try not to start talking like someone else who has an accent or speak in a different way, because I worry they will think i am making fun of them since it tends to start to happen if I am listening to someone for more than a couple mins/having a conv with them. And yes, i tend to say it they way you prefer and for the same reason!

I adhd and say the randomest things. i have wanted to know what causes that, and so echolalia is a great explanation! Thank you! now i can explain why i keep repeating random phrases and laughing at them :')

Thank you!! I thought the retentiveness of words was my OCD. But after watching this, I realize I do echolalia in many forms lol.

I was diagnosed as autistic at age 4 (years before the horrible organization known as Autism Speaks was founded), but my family knew there was something up with me right from the start. As a baby, I didn't babble or do any kind of baby talk, the only thing I did was scream and cry at the top of my lungs when something bothered me (like rain or wind outside). When I said my first word, it was "cookie" because of something I saw on TV. From there on, I could "talk", but I couldn't "speak" in a sense, everything was scripted and most of it was non-interactive echolalia, very VERY rarely did I use interactive echolalia. Nothing that came out of my mouth was my own words, everything was from things I had heard before or entire TV show episodes (yes, I was one of those "stereotypical" autistics who had a Thomas the Tank Engine special interest and would recite entire VHS tapes worth of episodes at any given time). I was very talkative, but I wasn't actually using my own words for anything. It was all echolalia and scripting. I am now writing a book about my experiences as an autistic person living in a neurotypical world, so I've been doing research and only recently learned that what I did as a young child was echolalia, and that I sometimes still have times where I can only speak using echolalia (or lose the ability to speak altogether, which happens far more often than I'd like it to), mostly when I'm really tired, overwhelmed, and/or having a meltdown or shutdown. Your videos, alongside many other autistic RU-vidrs, have been very helpful in helping me to understand autism better and by extent, myself and why I do the things I do. Writing my book has given me a LOT of self-reflection time, and these videos really help me with that as well. I know this is an older video, but I just wanted to say thank you for making all this great autism content, Stephanie!

Feel like I learn something new from each of your videos. Keep up the good work.

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.

It's a song by Dead Can Dance.

I think out loud all the time and thought it was weird but normal, maybe not though. And random words will come to mind that as far as I know I never heard of like Latvia. Sometimes it feels like an intuitive process like a psychic or spiritual calling. I like to think of it like the universe is connecting with me, but it could also be this echo-la-la la thing, echolalia.

Yeah I primarily do the non-interactive ones. Like saying random words for self-stimulation, singing songs or reciting phrases I'm reminded of, and the rehearsal and self-guiding ones too. I didn't think the rehearsal thing was exclusive either I would think a lot of people do that like if they have to make an important phone call or present in class or something. And I don't do the self-guiding one very often, but occasionally I do for more complicated tasks.

I didn't figure on leaving a comment but now I have to since you mentioned speaking like I'm on the news. That is literally the *exact* description of how my parents said I spoke when I was young. It was quite a striking difference in tone, considering our local accent. I've also noticed that I do this *all the time* when I have to speak on the phone for work. I can literally say the same phrases for an entire conversation and only change a handful of words, but if I have to break that script, I'm next to hopeless. It's as though I created my own delayed echolalia

Thankyou for explaining this to me, I've never heard of it. It makes sense though👍

I knew I did some of this before coming into this video and I am now way more aware of more echolalia I do than I thought 🤦🏻‍♀️

Omg I use self direction all the time. Helps me process what I’m doing.

My second favorite example of delayed echolalia was from when I was working in a preschool for children with language delays. We were outside sitting under the trees, and this three year old looked up, pointed at the fir tree above us, and said, 'Put it on the Christmas tree." This was summer, mind you, so that phrase was quite delayed! I'm not sure whether it was just an association that automatically triggered him to repeat the phrase, or whether he was attempting to comment on the fact that hey, there's a "Christmas tree" above us, using the most relevant phrase he could retrieve. My first favorite example of delayed echolalia was again a three year old, who while walking down to the gym, at a certain point in the hallway, would stop, put his hands up to his mouth in a "calling" gesture, and say, "Calling all bunnies! Calling all bunnies!" It was an entirely undistinguished stretch of school hallway, no decorations or anything. He always did it at the same spot. None of us could figure out what was triggering it, and neither could his mom, but it was pretty adorable. I often repeat what someone has said as I'm attempting to process it, but never thought of it as echolalia. I do often repeat what I've said myself, several times, especially if I'm feeling a bit anxious, but I think it's that I often feel like someone hasn't heard what I said. Not sure why. Maybe because I'm not picking up nonverbal signals that they've heard me? But I do it a lot and I don't know why. I also talk to myself kind of all the time when I'm alone, but I think that's because it helps me to process what I'm doing/what I'm going to do.

Have you ever experienced picking up a pattern of speech from reading? I find that if I read a book that has strong accents or speech patterns (like the characters are from Britain, or southern), and those phrases/spech patterns either translate in the text or I just have life experience in hearing them out loud before, I find myself using those speech patterns in real life after I put the book down, both out loud and in my head. For instance, I hear British accents a lot, and can mimic it well. I read a story not too long ago that was set in 19th century England and after having read it I found myself speaking (in my head) with a British accent. I managed to MOSTLY keep from using it when speaking out loud, but I did wind up using silly "Olde English" words and phrases for several days afterwards.

I'm not quite sure if it's echolalia, but I used to have a habit when I was a kid where I would usually repeat words under my breath after I said them. My mom said it was really annoying one day, and I think I tried really hard to stop doing it. I think I still do it sometimes. I also love reading out phrases I think are funny or repeating phrases I think are funny almost immediately after I experience them, and I would imagine that makes it kinda hard to watch things with me lol

My 7 year old is hooked on Harry Potter Puppet Pals right now (old I know) but EVERYTIME he walks past saying "Snape, Snape, Severus Snape" I immediately respond with "DUMBLEDORE!" and we just keep going through the whole song turn taking!🤣 We're both autistic and I'm obsessed with music so we're kinda stuck on a loop here and nobody but us knows what we're singing LMAO He has a lot of different forms of echolalia but speech therapy is helping him.

Oh, I tend to pick up voices and tones and accents from other people a lot! My Spanish teacher has a Cuban accent and I always tend to use it a little while after class ends.

I love your hair color o: I mostly have non-interactive echolalia. Someone will say something and it triggers a memory and I won't even respond to their question or what they said to me at first. Then they're just kind of staring at me like, dude wtf. Like someone saying, "are you eating peanut butter and jelly?" I'll just be like, "peanut butter jelly time peanut butter jelly time" and then they stare. I do the whoop whoop sound from Curly on the Three Stooges a lot. I really like doing accents or copying voices. I wish I could get a job in voice acting. I'll impersonate people I work with sometimes too. I usually get attached to these phrases or sounds for a few weeks. I have a coworker that I'm pretty sure at least has ADHD and we bounce sounds, phrases and accents off each other which is fun. It's fun being with similar people. I have to make myself aware though that this can be annoying to other people. I think I annoy my girlfriend sometimes because she'll say something to me and I'll just repeat it. Ugh.

I definitely have like major immediate reactive echolalia. Almost as like an auditory stim. Definitely sometimes with people and media especially, always feeling the need to say it back. But especially with like non-verbal noises I hear, that usually I notice more than others as an autistic person. So a car passing, or the light buzzing, or a train in the distance; using echolalia kinda helps me deal with the sounds and being hyper sensitive to them.

A nice one is from the movie "Hot Fuzz", one of the first ones I watched with my boyfriend: "Yarp" for "yes", I would say it all the time in the same manner as the character in the movie (but only to my boyfriend) . Similarly with phrases from Disney films (but only to my sister)

Very interesting to know and good video much love from Redding CA and showing love from Carissa Lee Stream

I tend to memorize dialogue from films, and I use terms and phrases in conversation. For instance: It's good to know in spite of everything there's still some people with a sense of humour.... (Dawn Of The Dead 1978). Or: I must have missed 60 minutes, what are you saying?....(Die Hard 1988). I also have difficulty with repeating phrases over and over, inwardly, almost as though I'm trying for the perfect take, and when I do it right I have to keep on doing it.

the only thing I repeat a lot is "je t'aime", whenever I feel a positive emotion towards my boyfriend or my cat (used to do it with my mother too when I was young) these words just come out by themselves and I can say them 5 to 10 times in a very short time without realizing it. But I'm not sure if it's echolalia or just verbal stimming.

I didn't think I did this. But, I realized I repeat back phrases to try make jokes all the time. I also say Ace Ventura lines all the time.

I'm not sure if it's echolalia, but everytime I'm starting to feel overwhelm I repeat to myself a specific phrase, always the same phrase. In my childhood\adolescence it was a phrase from Harry Potter and currently is a phrase from the X Files. Great video, thanks!

Hi Stephanie. Love the snapback. Which store did you buy it at ?

I'm a 31 year old adult and I repeat songs that I made up. Tiny little songs. Its self stimulating do I have this?

I guess the “So, ya wanna be a voice actor” line really isn’t appropriate. But the kid has got skills... seriously

Only just learning I have non-interactive echolalia. I didn't even know what echolalia was before.

Sometimes I'll be doing something and the say it and then repeat it in a song form.I do this a lot but for the sake of the example I'm only going to label one time I did it. (Example: One time when I was little I finished checking my blood sugar and started singing the number over and over again. I went upstairs and when my mom asked me what my number was I sang it to her.) Do you think that this is a form of echolalia? Because I'm really unsure

Something someone has just said that astonishes me or surprises me, I echo this back spontaneously. E.g. I will echo the punch line from a funny joke, then laugh...very embarrassing when it's not a joke.

I’m kind of spiraling a little bit because I’m just picking up on like behaviors that I’ve just always had but never thought about as anything. A lot of the time it comes in as like some sort of phrase that popped into my head,And I don’t really think I just say it. And I have to say sorry and tell that person to keep on going and just ignore whatever I just said. I’ve always thought of it as I am referencing something but it’s out of context.I mean it’s usually tangentially related to what they’re saying but also I just had blurred it out Red Robin Yum in of them talking about restaurants for example.

Huh, it makes so much sense, im curious, can echolalia cause u to whisper to urself what u just said outloud? Curious because usually when I talk I whisper what I just said and people tend to notice and ask why I do that, heck i even tend to notice when watching my youtube videos

Makes me think of the movie Rain Man.

I get the titel of these video's in dutch ???? (Ik krijg de titels van deze video's in het nederlands ????).

After watching this I just realised I think I have something goes as echolalia, I copy the way people laugh around me. Whenever I'm with a friend, I my laughter sounds like them.

dose this go along with why some of us make animal sounds like meow at commutate? i grew up more with animas then humans (yay shitty childhood) but we had cats and i was around and with cats alot ….. now i have adult friends who we still kind of do this if we are paying close mind to what we are saying, ie friend is playing on phone and i bumped them, they hiss i know its cause i got too close

So I shouldn't say "okay" ever again around you in my comments? Or was that painful word association limited to a single experience? (Thank you for making this video! I appreciated learning about this concept. I think it would be fun to hear your echolalia-based Japanese accent. XD) [Do "concept" and "accent" rhyme? I don't know for sure, But I'm keeping it for when I review my notes in the future.]

I swere it said the coughing medicine. EEEE CO LAAAA

I guess people pointed this out before, but I can hear a high sound at the background troughout this whole video. I had it in another video of u as well (it stopped halfway in that one). It's so dominant to me till the point I can't watch the video 🙁 I can't focus on what u say. Could it be your computer? It sounds a bit like blowing/high frequency flute tone. Sorry, I just thought it's better to mention it. I'm extremely sensitive to sound, but it's so loud to me that I can't imagine to be the only one that isn't able to ignore the sound? Or it has a reason and I am missing something? Ummm I'm confused now🙊

I am a grown adult but i think i developed some sort of echolalia. I have been repeating the words i hear or read over and over again. I wasn't like that one year ago. Its just a new thing for me.And its very annoying it keeps me from living my life normally and causes me to not understand what i read. Therefore i cannot have conversation with other people. Is there any legit way to overcome this disorder?

Wait, so everyone doesn't do this? Im reciting movies and jingles in the context of the situation. Sometimes I just say it out of the blue.. like im just alone and it pops in my head. My mom had echolalia and if you would say like "it's so nice out".. she would say "ya ya it's nice out"...

In your research about this topic, did you find any information about mental/internal echolalia (as in, only repeating words/sounds in your head but not out loud)? That seems to be what happens to me and I've said other members of the community say the same thing, but my therapist says there's no such thing as internal echolalia and I'm just "making it up". :(

Hey stephanie, i just repeat words in a typical country accent. Is it echolalia?

I have the okay thing 👂with lots of things💥 seeming to be more and more

Hi, I don’t know if this is it, but I randomly speak a phrase like “Hello there, General Kenobi, you are a bold one” or memes that I know all the time when I’m around friends or people. I can’t stop or I don’t realise I’m doing it and I get embarrassed cuz I don’t like annoying people but I just get these words stuck in my head. I have autism so it might be just part of that or something. My mum always gets annoyed by it so whoops

Totally off topic, but I have to know, what is the dye you use on your hair. That color is what I've been trying for for decades. I always feel better when my hair is blue. The right blue would be amazing.

Omg I also will repeat "okay" (or "I'm sorry") over and over when highly distressed. I talk to myself often, including describing my actions as I do them. Do you know what the requirements are to be diagnosed with echolalia?

all throughout my childhood i used to memorize and repeat jingles from the commercials i’ve seen on tv all the time ,, i never knew it was an autistic thing 😳

My sister would always repeat whatever she said in a whisper after she said it.

That's a weird word. I think all parrots have this

Question! I’ve seen someone demonstrate echolalia like this (demonstrate as in show how to communicate with a person with echolalia like this, not saying they have echolalia) Person A: Did you have a Good time? Yes or no. Person B: Yes To explain, the person picks out what the first person uses to express their thoughts. This is a weird way to explain this but I don’t know how to explain it any other way.

You are pronouncing it correctly. I know where you are coming from. I to have aspergers. Like your dyed hair

So I do a lot of these things 😐 I was just here for the info...

I hate it when someone one from the other room comes in , "oyh " I was calling you, then 10 minutes after I can still hear some one calling out to me, but its just a ghost voice from girl friends past, lol jokes, na just a reminder of them calling out still stuck in my mind. Go out and there's no one there

Today y dad was talking to my brother and said, "Are you ready? Are you ready for this?" and I said, "Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?" I also repeat John Mulaney thing if I hear someone say the first part. (for example, "can you get e the top part of that drawer?" "She is so fucked up she calls the head 'the top part")

I hear the words I say, music, sounds and what ever people say echo in my mind for along time, the way they say things. I get bullied so it's rather... Uncomfy hearing the words "you're disgusting" repeat on you so much

I apparently don't exist outside of spam bins. :/

Bruh

wait so is this how accents work-

NonPatreon subscribers will get helicopter rides! 🚁

0:05, ditto. I like e-ko-lah-lia (ˌɛkoʊˈlɑliə) compared to the "official" US pronunciation of e-ko-ley-lee-a (ˌɛkoʊˈleɪliə). My brother and I both prefer the first along with archipelago being pronounced like ar-ki-pel-ah-go (ɑɹkəˌpəˈlɑɡoʊ as best as I can judge. Stress is hard to tell for me.) compared to ar-kuh-pel-uh-go (ˌɑɹkəˈpɛləˌɡoʊ).