What is Echolalia and How Does It Relate To Autism | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s webisode, a pediatric Speech and Language Pathologist sheds some light on what Echolalia is and it’s connection to Autism.  For more information on Echolalia, read this blog: https://nspt4kids.wpengine.com/parenting/echolalia-what-is-it/

In This Video You Will Learn:

  • What Echolalia is
  • How Echolalia relates to Autism
  • When Echolalia is developmentally appropriate

Video Transcription:

Announcer: From Chicago’s leading experts in pediatrics to a worldwide
audience, this is Pediatric Therapy TV, where we provide experience and
innovation to maximize your child’s potential. Now your host, here’s Robyn.

Robyn: Hello and welcome to Pediatric Therapy TV. I’m your host, Robyn
Ackerman. Today I’m standing here with pediatric speech and
language pathologist Deanna Swallow. Deanna, can you explain to
us what is echolalia and how does it relate to children with
autism?

Deanna: Sure. Echolalia refers to the imitation of spoken language. To
a certain extent, echolalia can be typical. For example, when
you have a child under the age of 12 months, we want them doing
a lot of repeating of our gestures and our speech sounds. You
might see children repeating words and phrases up until about
age four.

After a certain point, echolalia is considered atypical. For
children with autism, one of the salient features of autism is
deficits or weaknesses in understanding and use of spoken
language. Oftentimes, children with autism will use echolalia,
and that can be an indicator of weaknesses in spoken language.

There are many different reasons that children will use
echolalia. Sometimes it can be to help them process language.
For example, if I ask a child, “How old are you,” and they say,
“Old are you,” they may be rehearsing that question in their
head to help them answer it. If they do rehearse the question
and then give me an appropriate response, then I know they may
have been using echolalia to help process language.

Some children might use echolalia because they simply don’t know
what to say. They know something is supposed to go here but
they’re not sure what, so they might just repeat what you said
as a means to communicate.

Robyn: Thank you so much for clearing that up, and thank you to our
viewers. And remember, keep on blossoming.

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