What is Echolalia?

Written By Loren Snow

Echolalia is where an autistic person may repeat words and phrases.

What does it sound like?

There's immediate echolalia and there's delayed echolalia.

Immediate echolalia, 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.

Examples:

A simple form of echolalia could be somebody asking: "Do you want cake?"

The autistic person may reply: "cake cake cake!"

A complex form of echolalia could be someone asking: "Do you want cake?"

and the autistic person responding with all the ingredients needed to make a cake which could seem like agreement or consideration but may lack the understanding.

“For my partner and I we randomly sing little jingles to each other or lyrics from musicals as we go about our days. If you were to listen you could tell how we feel from the lyrics, the songs, and our tones - which means we’re communicating a lot more than just the words!” - Loren Snow

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Why do we see Echolalia?

  • Stimming

It could be for a stim behavior. 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.

  • 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.

  • Sensory Needs

Also see our videos on each of the senses to understand what this may look like.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, your body awareness, and your digestion. That's a lot going on there.

  • Tics, Tourette's, and Echopraxia

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

  • Learning

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.

  • Understanding

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.

  • Communication

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.

Resources / References:

(1) none here: suggest some for us?

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Loren Snow

My name is Loren Snow, and I'm an autistic consultant and trainer.

Over the past decade I've taught tens of thousands of parents of autistic children at every stage of the diagnosis process: from understanding EHCPs and other legal documents and reports, to understanding autism, learning how to connect with their children, to engaging with SALT, OTs, and all the other professionals.

I work with NHS England teaching NHS staff and in the NHS reviewing patients' care in psychiatric hospitals. In this work I have supported autistic adults in hundreds of NHS and private hospitals across the UK.

I'm also surrounded by other autistic adults just like me - so what better place to learn about autism than directly from an autistic person like myself who knows the autistic point of view, has heard the parent's side, and knows how the system works.

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