Echolalia

Echolalia is when your child repeats words or phrases that someone else said. With immediate echolalia, the repeat comes right away or a few minutes later. The delayed kind comes much later, and many people call it scripting. Many toddlers who aren't autistic repeat speech too while they learn to talk, and they do it less as their language grows.

U.S. health agencies list echolalia among the signs of autism, but repeating words alone doesn't mean a child is autistic. Early behavior research said it had no meaning. Later research found a child can use it to take a turn, label, ask, agree or protest. It can also help some children learn language or calm down. Some behavior analysis studies still aim to reduce it, while Cohn and colleagues argue against trying to stop all of it.

You might ask your child about juice and hear "want juice" back, or hear a cartoon line again at dinner. Autistic children who are deaf or hard of hearing may echo signs, called manual echolalia. It often depends on the setting, so it helps to note when and where it happens. In speech therapy, a speech-language pathologist (SLP) looks at what your child's repeating is for. It's worth raising with your pediatrician or an SLP if you see it along with other signs.

• What it does for your child: Ask your Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) what your child's echolalia seems to do, such as taking a turn, asking or calming down.
• Working with speech therapy: Ask how your BCBA and your child's SLP will share what each of them sees.
• Goals about echolalia: If a goal targets echolalia, ask why and what your child gains from it.