Thanks so much for your replies, and the encouragement! I am so anxious for his evaluations with the specialists, just to know for sure if he fits ASD, and/or has delays that need to be addressed. I've been trying hard the last few days to engage him in conversation that is harder to repeat. We lined up his stuffed animals that all have names, and I would go around and point and say "What's his name?". After a few times of my son repeating "what's his name?" i finally got him to say each one's name when I asked and pointed. Then I asked for my name, and finally said "what's your name". That one was the hardest (more repeats), but he finally started answering with his name after some coaching.
Usually the repeated conversations are much more frustrating. Yesterday on the way home from the doctor's office, I wasn't sure if he was hungry since he'd had such a small lunch. I said "Are you hungry" he said "a hungry". I said do you want to stop and get some chicken nuggets." he siad "a chicken nuggets." I said, "Are you really hungry buddy, or no thanks?" he said "no thanks". With conversations like that it is so hard to know if he's really doing back and forth with me and saying what he means or just repeating me. Like I mentioned before he never says yes or no, so it's hardly ever clear what he really wants. Sometimes it's obvious he wasnt really following the conversation becuase he'll throw a huge fit like he wants something he just told me no, he didn't want, or else tell me he wants something then push it away when I hand it to him.
He also does what some of you mentioned and says his video games out loud. Makes the sounds then says the phrases that come up. He'll also just start saying a few lines from a movie, or recite one of his books when we're just walking around the grocery store. He memorizes everything, but then, my mom and I both have a near photographic memory ourselves. There is no family history of autism on either side.
Several people now have mentioned that some ecolalia is common as part of learning language, so I guess it depends on the severity of it, since this is his strongest indicator on the scale. We meet with the psychologist in a week, but it will be a couple of weeks at least before the speech therapist can see us. Such a long wait. In the mean time, I'll keep working with him. Is there a strategy that worked well for those of you who've mentioned your children echoed a lot when they were younger? It was very encouraging to read how well all of your kids are doing now. That is wonderful!
Rachel
hrm I am not really sure what helped the most except that through speech therapy DS was able to formulate his own answers. Since it just sort of got less and less each day we didn't really notice when it pretty much stopped. I know he still does a lot of the inserting scripted responses into his speech but its not as obvious as it was 2 years ago.
We also worked on shortening our sentences in speaking to him and then formulating proper sentence structure for him, which since he did repeat things it was easy to get him to verbally repeat these things. it would start out with things like Say go please and he would echo say go please, then eventually the say would drop off and he would just use go please. eventually everything started to click and he is able to use the words to formulate his own ideas. He still does need prompting in many situations on what words he should use and such but his ability to communicate has improved greatly over the past 1 1/2 years. He is now to the point where some abstract concepts are emerging (like dreams) and he is able to communicate what happened during the day, recall events from several days ago, and beaware of future events. Though he doesn't have a good grasp on time especially if things have changed alot since that point (for instance we were talking about that when he was a the same age as his little brother he wore diapers too and he kept insisting he is potty trained and doesn't wear diapers today, he isn't able to grasp the concept between present, future and past tense)
Sometimes when he would do the repeating we would try to engage him in order to break it up. Asking him questions on who said it etc.. I know we also many times had to engage in the repetition ourselves (espcially with the Lion King songs... I always had to sing Timon's part and my ds would do Pumbaa and I had better get the part just right) It really started to sink in for us that it wasn't all mindless rote repetition when my son would tell me Stop its my turn and then okay now its your turn momma do it do it.
Hi
As for echolalia, its actually to some extent a normal part of learning. As with a lot of the signs of Autism, they are also normal in young children, just not to an extreme. My oldest DS used repeated things over and over, he memorized movies, books, songs, and he would plug in sentences from these things into his language when he couldn't come up with the right words. At first, it seemed mostly rote, but then we realized that he was using these lines in the correct context (but when he couldn't come up with his own words). Further, we have also discovered that part of his learning process for things he hears is for him to have to repeat it to himself (think of doing drills in school where you quiz yourself on math answers over and over and over) in order for him to learn it. Thus, what he was repeating would change approximately every 1-2 weeks as once he learned it he moved on.
Today we still find he will repeat things, but its mostly through his learning process or on car trips and he becomes boards (and starts playing his computer games in his mind and aloud). He will still pull lines that he has heard from other people, movies, etc when he can't come up with his own words, but this is more and more rare. He will also do it at times just to be silly and get a laugh from everyone.
From what little I've learned on here, you can have some signs and not others and be asd. Many children can be affectionate and even social (read post about social w/ autism done recently on here). If they say have speech issues, maybe some stims like hand flapping or toe walking or what not, and some repetative issues ...that could be enough for pdd or maybe even mild autism. It depends on so many things. I've listened to people on here talk about their children and some of them have every sign there is to varying degrees, and others that have hardly any signs at all. It's all so hard. We're here for you though!
Amber
Hi everyone. I just found your board today, and have learned so much just reading through your posts. I've been an emotional wreck the last few days, and just took my ds, 32 months to a pediatrician appt today to discuss my concerns about his language development. I didn't know anything about ecolalia a few days ago, or even that him repeating me so much, was that big of a deal until a few days ago. My sister and her family (with 2 young kids) came to visit, and seeing the one-on-one differences so plainly, when I'd had some creeping suspicions all along got me looking into my concerns again. I was first worried when he was a baby and didn't start really saying any words, not even "mama" until almost 18 months. The doctor told me to wait. His vocabulary exploded and then he started memorizing everything he read, learning letters, shapes, numbers early, and I thought problems were solved. So a few days ago, after my sister's visit, I read about ecolalia online, and that is pretty much the majority, if not his sole form of communication. Me: "Do you want something to eat?" Him: "Something to eat." That got me looking into PDD. My son does not use I, me, yes, or no. And he repeats me to the point of it not making sense when he answers a question sometimes, like he's repeating me instead of saying what he really wants then throws a fit. However so many other things on the scale don't seem like him at all. He is very affectionate, uses imaginary play, enjoys other kids, is quick to warm up to new people, and makes good eye contact.
After speaking with the doctor today, she suspects ASD, and had us make appointments with a speech therapist and a psychologist for further evaluation. However she didn't really get him talking, she was just going by what I was describing. I know it wouldnt' be the end of the world, but I can't seem to stop crying. Does anyone know how big of a sign ecolalia is of ASD? Is it always related to autism or can it also be an unrelated language delay? What about the fact that he doesn't seem to exhibit many of the other signs? It seems like a long wait till these evaluations, so I'm clamoring for information. I really appreciate the post of websites with info that you have on the board. Thank you so much for the info.
Thanks for listening (...or reading :)
Rachel
My Son's name is Tony, he's 9 y/o & HFA (High Functioning Autism). He didn't start talking until like 2 & a half - 3 y/o. He too copied everything we said, & they told me that it was Ecolalia. He hasn't done that in a really long time though. As a matter of fact, after I put him in school at 3 & a half y/o, his language improved dramaticly! I still can't believe how far he's come since he first started going to school. Even though I personally thought he was too young to go to school, & cried every time I put him on the bus (of course HE didn't know I cried). Now I KNOW it was the best thing for him! He was first diagnosed as mildly autistic, now he's very high functioning. You'll LOVE this board, everyone on here is very caring, friendly, & informative! My name is Linda, I'm a 40 y/o sahm. I have 3 kids...ages 24 y/o, 16 y/o & 9 y/o. I also have 2 grandchildren by my oldest Daughter. They are 5 y/o & almost 2 months old. Feel free to PM (Personal Message) me or E-mail me, I LOVE getting BOTH!! Linda...aka MWN64...aka Tony'sMom
Copyright Autism-PDD.net