Echolalia - Part 1:
-Echolalia can be seen in a variety of situations.
-A person may repeat a word or phrase immediately after it is heard without any communicative intent attached to the specific word meaning.
-It is often repeated with typical articulation and other speech parameters.
-In many instances it appears that the person has attached no meaning or communicative intent to the spoken words.
-A question may be repeated without any attempt to give a typical answer response.
-The person often appears to not recognize that a question has been asked and that an answer would be the typical response.
-The last choice offered in a question may be given as an answer without the communicative intent attached to the specific word meaning.
-This can be very misleading. The person often appears to be recognizing that one of the choices is expected as a typical response but does not consider the meaning of the question.
-Also, a person may repeat a word or phrase at a later point in time than when it was heard, when there is no meaningful correspondence to the current context.
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Echolalia - Part 2:
-A person may repeat what is heard in a conversation. It may appear to be a way to maintain the conversation while the person is processing the exchange and formulating a more appropriate or original response.
-Echlalic words and phrases can be repetitions of written material, conversation, or songs, movies, and commercials seen or heard in the past.
-A delayed echolalia may also be triggered by a sensory experience.
-It appears that persons with significant echolalia can repeat words and phrases of syntactic and semantic complexity far beyond what they are able to comprehend or generate in novel communicative interactions.
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Links to Resource/Research Information:
- Prizant, B. M. (2015) Uniquely Human. Simon & Schuster: New York, New York.
- Stokes, S., Increasing Expressive Skills for Verbal Children with Autism, Cooperative Educational Service Agency 7, Green Bay, WI.
