Animal Echolalia

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i used to do it ALL the time, mostly with cats though. i never owned a cat but i almost always repeated their meows when i was younger. sometimes i barked at my neighbors dog when it barked at me (in the same tone and pattern). i imitated birds a bit, mostly crows and another bird around here but not so much chickadees, i found that one weird when i tried to imitate it.

before my dog died (september 2007) i would occasionally imitate her groans and small sounds, sometimes her barks but only when nobody was around. i stopped imitating most animals around people because i know others find this strange but it's fun to do when they're not there.

I like to imitate bird chirps, and then watch them fly away in alarm, because they think a giant mutant bird is on the make, LOL. Did anyone ever imitate a peacock? Very satisfying. You can hear them in the movie, "Midnight Express," when the guy is in a prison in Turkey. It's like a demented, loud Meowing.

I talk to the cats, they talk back. I'm happy;they're happy. Who's harmed?...

I imitate birds and dogs..and cats... it is actually kinda cool with the birds, because i can recognize certain types of bird just by the sound that they make.

I also imitate the phone.... i have to watch myself for this at work because there is always a phone ringing.... briinn iiinngg iinngg

I also do the echolalia conversations in my head thing, and the stuttering thing, and the repeating words over and over in my paragraph thing.

Does this drive anyone nuts. I don't mean anyone around you, but you yourself. Having echolalia, i mean.

The repeated conversations just need to stop. I don't need to rework every conversation i have ever had with anyone.

I meow back to the cats at home and at work all the time. (We do have cats at work, there's a cattery there.) Maybe that's why I get funny looks, but I think the cats talk more sense than the people do.

I repeat back to my cat the sort of meow she's just made, dunno' why. I don't know her language, she doesn't know mine, but I try to participate anyway ?

When walking along sidewalk, if there's loud (therefore, menacing) dog barking incessantly, I may have urge to bark or growl back-because I'm afraid of some dogs & because I can make similar sounds (so I want to communicate to dog that I can do this, too).

In high school, I used to make indescribable shrieking bird-like noises, though I don't know how I picked that up-it was not in response to animals, I'd make this sound while in school/around people. Used to growl & hiss at people, too-while a teenager, not at (younger) age one would expect this sort of thing. In retrospect it's kinda' embarrassing, but it must have seemed like the right idea (best coping mechanism I had) at the time.

Not aware of ever having "echolalia" tendency in relation to humans, unless maybe it was esp. nifty voice/way of speaking, for example on tv/in movie-even then it would be only briefly.

I seem to have inducted the "clicking" noise that geckos make, albeit I sound nothing like them as my voice is one shade of tone, but I find myself making the noise throughout the day.

I'd say it's echolalia.

Guess I'm trying to make my cat feel less lonely or alone, because she's only one of her species that she gets to interact with (indoor kitty).

Used to have second cat, but they didn't get along well at all (and that cat went with his human when my ex & I split). So I try to provide some echoing for my cat, so she hears something more familiar (in her language) than just "human-speak".

It's not like I thought of this intellectual reason before I started (talking back while attempting to mimic her noises)-idea makes sense to me-but I just enjoy doing this, no matter the theory behind my behavior.

I like your reasoning. I feel something similar, when I try to echo my cat with perfect pitch. It's kind of like I'm saying, "I hear you."

The word came to me after I last posted: reflecting/reflection.

Like how people do with each other, "mirroring" words and/or gestures, to show affiliation/solidarity with (acknowledging presence of) the other creature. My cat isn't going to get that experience, reinforcement & validation, from anywhere/anyone else (if I don't do it).

Am not trying to sound all serious & important-these are the words that depict how I conceptualize relationship, even if it's just with a cat who cannot tell me whether she feels "recognized" or understood. Her mental content may be simple, intellectually, but that doesn't mean she doesn't enjoy hearing her own language spoken back to her.

I agree. And I can tell that she likes when I "imitate" her, because she continues the "conversation" as long as possible.

I used to do this all the time when I was younger with cats and dogs. I still mimic a cat's meow and I've confused people to the point they think a cat is in the building