What Is Echolalia?
Have you ever wondered what echolalia is and why it occurs in children’s speech? The term echolalia refers to the repetition of speech and language that an individual hears spoken by another; it is a natural part of speech and language acquisition. A significant number of toddlers will go through a stage before the age of 3 years in which they repeatedly imitate words and phrases they hear from others. There are two kinds of echolalia: immediate and delayed.
When people hear the word echolalia, they almost always think of immediate echolalia, or the repetition of language immediately or shortly after hearing it. Children often produce immediate echolalia when they are endeavoring to process language or when they have not yet developed the ability to produce spontaneous language on their own. For example, when somebody walks up to a child and says “Hi, how are you?” and the child responds with “Hi, how are you?”, the child isn’t producing a novel utterance, but rather he is still in the process of acquiring the language specific to that greeting and context. As the child’s language skills develop, the frequency of echolalic speech decreases.
Delayed echolalia, on the other hand, consists of the repetition of an utterance a significant amount of time after it has been heard. Minutes, hours, days, or months could go by before the repetition occurs. The word scripting is commonly used to refer to some forms of delayed echolalia, especially when the echolalic speech is quite lengthy. Children may script parts of songs, TV shows, commercials and utterances others have spoken in real life, using them to communicate meaning in various situations. Frequently, delayed echolalia doesn’t appear to make sense to an unfamiliar listener within the conversational context; however, the repeated utterance likely holds personal significance or meaning for the child.
Echolalia – immediate and delayed – is prevalent in language acquisition for gestalt language processors and autistic individuals (85% of whom are estimated to be gestalt language processors) who acquire language in larger chunks or units. Over time, as these children store a greater number of language “chunks”, they can begin to break the units apart and assign meaning to shorter phrases and single words, until they can finally produce unique self-generated language.
Both types of echolalia can serve a purpose which might require some investigative work to ascertain. Echolalia is meaningful and should not be ignored, dismissed, or discouraged. The best way to support a child who exhibits echolalia is to provide simple language models that don’t require specific responses. Oftentimes, echolalia serves a particular communicative function, such as turn taking, calling, affirming, commenting, protesting, directing, etc., all of which are important functions within social interactions. It is also worth noting that echolalic speech might persist for an extended period until the child develops the ability to produce self-generated grammar and spontaneous speech.
If your child repeats utterances that are spoken to him or uses scripts to communicate in various contexts, you may want to speak with a speech therapist to determine how best to support your child’s language development. Here at Barnes Speech and Language Services, our speech therapist is trained in echolalia and natural language acquisition. Call (810)-255-1412 or contact us here to learn more.
Sources:
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Echolalia and its role in Gestalt language acquisition. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. https://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Autism/Echolalia-and-Its-Role-in-Gestalt-Language-Acquisition/
Davis, K. G. (2017, May 9). Echoes of language development: 7 facts about echolalia for SLPS - @ASHA. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/echoes-of-language-development-7-facts-about-echolalia-for-slps/full/