A mother might ask her child what he wants for lunch, for example, and he’ll sing the song from a lunch meat commercial to say he wants a sandwich.

Providing information: Speech may be used to offer new information, but it may be hard to connect the dots. For example, if people with echolalia are asked to complete a task, they might say “good job!” while completing it, echoing what they’re used to hearing. Verbal completion: Speech is used to complete familiar verbal routines that are initiated by others. Turn taking: The person with echolalia uses phrases to fill an alternating verbal exchange. Interactive echolaliaįunctional echolalia is attempted communication intended to be interactional, acting as communication with another person. There are two main categories of echolalia: functional (or interactive) echolalia, and non-interactive echolalia, where the sounds or words may only be for personal use instead of communication. Consulting a language pathologist can help. Identifying why and how your child is using echolalia will help you develop a treatment plan for it. It’s common for autistic children or children with developmental delays to have echolalia further into childhood, especially if they’re experiencing delayed speech development. By age 3, most children’s echolalia will be minimal at most. By the age of 2, most children will start mixing in their own utterances along with repetitions of what they hear. Repetitive speech is an extremely common part of language development, and is commonly seen in young toddlers who are learning to communicate. In this case, they speaker has no control over what they say or when they say it. In many cases, echolalia is an attempt to communicate, learn language, or practice language.Įcholalia is different from Tourette syndrome, where a speaker may suddenly yell or say random things as part of their tic. For example, someone with echolalia might only be able to repeat a question rather than answer it. They may not be able to communicate effectively because they struggle to express their own thoughts.

People with echolalia repeat noises and phrases that they hear.

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