What is Echolalia?

Some autistic people repeat words and phrases - why is this?

Echolalia is where an autistic person may repeat words and phrases. But what does this sound like?

There's immediate echolalia and there's delayed echolalia.
Immediate echolalia, that happens instantly, whereas delayed echolalia can happen hours days months or even years after.

Both can be interactive where the autistic person says them in a way to communicate. They can also both be non-interactive - where they're used for things like self-regulation.

Some repeated things may depend on the context like somebody repeating phrases of movie that have the same emotional impact as what they're experiencing right now.

Now that's a bit complicated let's look at some examples:
A simple form of echolalia maybe somebody asking:
"Do you want cake?"
The autistic person may reply:
"cake cake cake!"

Where a complex version maybe
being asked:
"Do you want cake?"
and responding with all the details you
heard off a movie or advert or set of instructions.

What are some of the reasons why somebody might repeat words?

It could be for a stim behaviour. This is because it feels good to repeat those words. Stimming is any self-stimulatory act and it can use for stress relief, it can help focus and calm.

Another reason may be OCD which is obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In OCD the person may repeat the words because they're afraid something happening and feel a lot of shame as a result.
They may do it because they think they're preventing harm and
protecting those they care about.

It could also be due to sensory overload such as being close to shutdown or meltdown and this can be because of your senses of pain, temperature, touch, taste, smell, sight, balance, body awareness, and digestion. That's a lot going on there.

It can also be due to tics, but with ticks is generally referred to as something called echopraxia. Which means it's an involuntary repetition of words.

It can also be due to learning because every person during their development repeats words in order to get a grasp for how they feel.

It could be because the autistic person doesn't actually understand what is being said or maybe they just understand a part of it so they're repeating something related to it meaning that they have some kind of understanding but not a full understanding.

It can also be because they want to reply but don't know what to say, but it doesn't mean that we're not paying attention we could be very interested in what you have to say.

See our website for more information:
https://www.LorenSnow.com/echolalia

Sources:
https://musingsofanaspie.files.wordpr...


▼▼▼ MORE INFO ▼▼▼

I really like this little booklet on autism sensory strategies:
https://autism.org.uk/products/core-n...


▼▼▼ ABOUT ME ▼▼▼
My name's Loren Snow, and I'm an autistic public speaker and trainer and the CEO of Neurodiverse Training where myself and my team deliver training to tens of thousands of people each year about autism and neurodiversity.,
You can find out more about what we do or signup for one of our online courses here: https://neurodiversetraining.org


▼▼▼ OUR ONLINE COURSES ▼▼▼
Autism vs ADHD: What's the difference?: https://neurodiversetraining.org/cour...
Autism & Sensory Challenges In School: https://neurodiversetraining.org/cour...


▼▼▼ COPYRIGHT ▼▼▼
Copyright: (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
BASICALLY: If you want to LINK TO this video or include a link to it on your website, article, or course, please go ahead: that's free :)
If you want a copy to DOWNLOAD and STORE for a course/resource I charge a small fee: please contact me through my website: https://www.lorensnow.com letting me know who you are and what it's for.
If this is a private, unlisted, or members only video then contact before sharing.

Music by: www.bensound.com