Delayed EcholaliaYep, sounds very similar to what Elliot used to do. With commercials it was the music he'd hum, but he'd "say" his computer games or leap pad, including every bleep and noise it would make while playing, recite entire books sitting in the cart at the grocery store, and he was big on the parental reprimands too. He would walk around saying all the things we would say. We'd pull up to a mall and he'd start a little speech, "No fits about elevators. No fits in the mall." At night time, as we walked into the room, "Stay in the bed. Do not get out of bed." All he had to do was see something that looked like a pawprint or handprint, and he'd say this long script from Blues Clues. There were several movies or shows he would recite. This stuff wouldn't have been as strange to me if it wasn't his primary means of communication, which it was. He used to do lots of the jargon with inflection. It seemed like it was when he wanted to converse but didn't know what to say. He still uses some jargon now and then, but it is rare. He's more into music now, he can memorize a song with perfect pitch after a listen or two, and hums classical music incredibly well. Elliot is very boderline as to whether or not he is on the spectrum. His 2 dx have been mild-PDD and mild expressive-receptive lang disorder. Sometimes he seems more on the spectrum than others, which can be a wreck on the emotions, a feeling so many of seem to experience as lots of us have written about. We have our follow up with neuro in Feb, so I'm anxious to hear his opinion on Elliot's progress. I will tell you, as I've written in other posts, that I've read Thomas Sowell's 2 books, Late Talking Children, and The Einstein Syndrome, and the model seems to fit my son very well. THIS IS KEY: They do not suggest that this explains away all autism, but that there are some children who develop language late/in a different pattern who are likely to be diagnosed autistic or ADHD when young, who end up "catching up" on the verbal skills, and functioning very "normally". These kids all fit a very particular profile that you can read about later if you want. It is also controversial with some parents. While still maybe being unique, quirky, or of course their own distinct person, many of these kids went on to have successful careers in highly mathematical, analytical, or musical professions. Of course this is possible for ALL autistic children, who are all individual and unique, I was just trying to address your question of whether you can you have this strange speech pattern with the echolalia and not be autistic. I don't want to give false hopes, but this has been part of our journey and info I've taken into consideration along the way. I actually emailed Dr. Camerata the professor at Vanderbilt Univ. who conducted, and continues to conduct the research studies from the book, to ask a question along these lines and described my son. He was kind enough to write me back. I asked about the echolalia, if the late talking children from his study, also showed echolalia as they finally began to speak and he said, yes this was a common finding. It seems there is still more that researchers don't know than that they know, but I try to stick to the philosophy that regardless of what Elliot's actual spectrum/not spectrum official dx is or changes to be, he still has the same issues with language that we will continue working with him on. Rachel We've been dealing with this for about a year now. We were excited about it at first, as short sentences were few and far between before it started. And, truth be told, I think echoing has been a way for our son to learn language. He's come very far. However, everything he says, whether he's echoing or having spontaneous speech, has a "scripted" feel to it. We're working on language flexibility with our ST, and it seems to be slowly coming.We're getting more immediate echolalia lately, which is seemingly more promising than delayed echolalia, but the vast majority of his speech is still delayed echolalia... 1 year and counting. We can't wait for it to subside, but we understand that it may never fully disappear. That's kind of an interesting question...my NT memorizeed many books and such when she was 3 and 4 yrs old too. I think the echolalia when only used as the primary language is what is typical of kids with Autism. Does your son have any other meaningful language, does he communicate with you otherwise? I guess by him asking if he could watch the movie and go on to give the details wouldn't be too alarming unless he has other ASD tendencies....let us know what you find Marlowe According to my mom, I memorized lots of books and audio books when I was little and would get upset if she would read a story and skip any words. When I got older I discovered that I just have a really good memory. So I wondered about this when my ds had lots of the delayed echolalia. He went through a stage where he had lots of it, but now it is once in awhile instead of many times a day. He still memorizes books and shows, but says them when reading the book or while playing with the figures instead of just saying it out of the clear blue. He also had tons of the immediate echolalia, but this is largely gone now as well. Nowadays he is more likely to sound sort of "scripty" when he talks, or say the same thing, or ask the same question over and over. His spontaneous speech has improved greatly as well, so he sort of does a mixture of the two. He is such a little perfectionist about everything, that sometimes I wonder if the echolalia and scripts aren't his way of approaching language as something that works a particular way, instead of something that can be improvised. Like a little computer....if A, then B. If you say this, I'm supposed to say this, and he definitely wants to say it the right way. He'll try and make me rewind a conversation that doesn't go the way he wants it to go. He'll throw a fit and say, "I want mommy to say.......!" or "I wanna say......!" Rachel Ok, here's an example..... He got the Elefun Game for Xmas. He saw it under the tree last nite and said "Can we play Elefun by Milton Bradley, ages 3 and up, batteries not included?" or he'll say "Can we watch Bob the Builder by HIT Entertainment?" On the way to daycare this morning he was reciting portions of The Polar Express. He does this with other movies too. He recites portions of conversations, particularly when he's scolded, also - if I use a naughty word he'll say "What did you say? Go stand in the corner!" and mimics exactly what I've said to him in the past. When he's frustrated or angry he repeats a particular jargon (which isn't really audible to me, but its the same tone, inntonation every time). Also, when he mimics the words, he mimics the tone of the original jargon as well. yes this is Chris he plays back things said on t.v. or rules i give before going into walmart or figures man he is a mathematical figuring fellow blows me away a lot of times and when he learned that dirty monkey smell bad taught him to divide he could not repeat it enough ,and sometimes when i tell him things he automatically repeats it 4-6 times he say's he is planting it in his brain.
our children are our inspiration My 4 year old is constantly reciting movie/tv scripts and portions of conversations. It's gotten where he uses echolalia for much of his speech. Until recently we didn't know there was a medical term for this, we just thought he had a great memory and didn't think much about it. Everything I read says delayed echolalia is a sign of autism. Is it possible to have delayed echolalia and not be autistic? Daniel is a definant mimicer it's like a tape recorder here with him. He loves watching things over and over also. We have to watch what he watches. I hear this is common with asd kids I thought.My 3 1/2 yr old has just been diagnosed with PDD...leaning closer to Asperger's Syndrome. He does exhibit echolalia 70% of the time. Examples : He will ask " May I have a cookie please ? And continue with "Yes you may" before I can answer him. or, when playing with our pet cat and she scratches him accidently during play, he will reprimand her "Time-out for 5 mins" which is how we address bad behaviour with him. or when I am reinforcing a rule or reprimanding him,he repeats my questions instead of answering them.But in conversations pertaining anything that interest him greatly like puzzles, stories and numbers, he doesn't echo. Also acts out scenes and recites lines from animated shows as well as memorizes songs with no difficulty. He is seeing a speech pathologist and an occupational behaviour therapist but so far they have assured me echolalia is not something to worry about as it just another way for an asperger's child to comprehend language and it will gradually fade with therapy.
I asked Adam's speech therapists (every one that he has had) and every one that I have met this question: "Have you ever seen a child that was echolalic that was not on the spectrum? And if they were not diagnosed as such did you suspect that they were?" The answer was always NO to the first question and Yes to the second. Then I looked up the definition of echolalia and it reads:
Good question. I don't know the answer, but I believe that true echolalia is most often associated with ASDs. sounds like a syndrome I read about once called sematic pragmatic disorder |
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