Echolalia - does he hear me?

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My son echos. A typical conversation goes like this:

Me: Honey, you have to go pee in the potty.
Son: Pee. Potty.
Me: Mommy doesn't go in her pants.
Son: Pants.
Me: Sissy doesn't go in her pants.
Son: Pants.
Me: We use the potty.
Son: Potty. Use potty.
Me: Now I know you want to be a big boy.
Son: Big. Boy.

So I have to wonder...is he hearing me or just repeating me?

Literal Answer: Yes, he hears you. This is demonstrated by the fact that he consitently repeats what you say.

Comprehension would be demonstrated by him carrying out your wishes.

Well yeah he "hears" me. But I'm looking for comprehension. And it seems like sometimes he does and other times he does not. So does echolalia get in the way or is he just being a toddler?

Looking up articles online (none of which you likely have access to so you'll have to pay) people with poor receptive language skills have more instances of echolalia


This article has an interesting abstract and might catch your eye, but again you'll have to pay to read it


http://jslhr.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/25/1/42

My son used to be very echolalic. But its gotten better over time (he is 4.5 now). His receptive language skills are quite good so he comprehends even complicated instructions.. but verbal skills are still poor. If you ask him a concrete question (like what he is doing) or if he wants something, he will answer. He is still quite poor with abstract thinking so if you ask him a question that requires some abstract thinking he will look at you in a confused state and repeat it back. The only other time now that he echos is if he is really upset and anxious. Especially if he did something wrong and we tell him, he knows he was wrong so out of habit he echos back what you say to him.

I cannot comment on comprehension, but it concerning whether his echolalia might be 'getting in the way', I cannot see how it could get in the way, but I would be very surprised if echolalia is 'purpose-less'.

How long has he been doing it? Most toddlers go through an echolalic stage when they are learning language. He may still be trying to work out what you mean, and if he keeps it up, yeah, it might signify some dort of language disorder. But I don't think it is necessarily "getting in the way", as it is a function which helps toddlers acquire language associations.

My kiddo did this and eventually we realized he was NOT understanding us...just repeating what we said. One thing we were told by his speech pathologist was to NOT use negative type words...sorry if that sounds weird, not sure how to say it...anyway, something like this...
"
Instead of saying, "I do not go in my pants", say "you have to go in the toilet"...

If he is not understanding you, giving him a comparison type thing is not making it any better...so don't tell him what you do, don't tell him what he shouldn't do, but tell him what he SHOULD do...

Believe me that it's hard, we have to re-wire our brains for this type of talk...but it helped him greatly...

ie. one time I told him "DO NOT get your face wet", immediately he got his head wet...I thought he was being defiant, since he understood the "get hair wet" part, but actually, he did NOT understand the DO NOT part...as far as he was concerned I said "get your head wet" and he did...

So, do not make comparisons until he understands more...and just use simple "positive" type language in what you want him to do, not what you do not want him to do...

Goof luck!

Echolalia is a really common issue with children with ASD to varying degrees.
There is immediate echolalia and delayed echolalia
Normally it indicates that the child has not fully comprehended what you were saying to them or at times they understood you, but just have no idea how to respond, but know that it is their turn to speak, so they offer a repetition as their turn.
Sometimes the echo seems to act like a little tape recorder.. where the information although not processed properly is stored away for the next time it is heard or needs to be used. You will often find that children with echolalia will go on to use the word appropriately later on ( could be a long time later )

I think of echolalia as a positive sign in many . Kids who are echolalic are normally children that go on to develop substantial speech.

Delayed echolalia is another matter.. where children will often repeat whole conversations and large chunks of conversations. This can sometimes be pretty embarrassing to the original people involved in the conversation ! But you will also find that often the echo has some relationship to things going on at the time - so it is not entirely without meaning. The child has stored the language away, but just does not know how to use it appropriately and in context yet.

Echolalia serves a number of purposes for the child and is inherent for anyone learning language ASD child or not. However kids with ASD tend to have more issues around when to use the language they have and are more likely to have processing problems, therefore the echolalia is more prevalent and stays around for longer.

language that is used as a verbal stim ( for comfort )is completely different.

If you would like to read an indepth description of echolalia there is one here ( not sure I agree with all of it entirely ) but there are some good basic points made
http://groups.msn.com/theautismhomepage ... facts.msnw

whatamess: thank you, that was so informative! I'm going to try that for sure, it really makes a great deal of sense. He does seem to become echolalic when I am trying explain differences (i.e. "We don't pee in our pants. We pee in the potty.") If he's having receptive language difficulties (and he does have a global developmental delay) it's no wonder if he's getting confused. Sometimes my verbosity can be a detriment lol

Something to remember is that ASD's pretty much take you literally so as people have said before wording and phrasing your sentences this way is going to help alot.

However something that should be noted is your son completly understands what you are saying to him and by repeating it he is trying to understand why you used those words. Because for a person with autism they have a hard time grasping abstract concepts.

Which brings it back to wording things in a way he will understand so hopefully he doesn't repeat as much.

I hope this helps.

I managed to potty train my 3.5 year old autie daughter by just taking her every hour. I worked with her school using a schedule with PECS cards. She still does not ask to go but she does do the pee pee dance and will bring you the potty card if it is available to her. My daughter is starting to talk more but still uses a lot of echolalia. Just keep encouraging him to talk...even if it is just repeating he is learning.