Echolalia Is Not “Meaningless” Speech
Why we should never try to stop or “treat” echolalia, especially in Autistic people
What is Echolalia?
Echolalia is the repetition or echoing of words or sounds that you hear someone else say.
Echolalia is an important part of language development for all children, and one of the ways children learn how to communicate verbally.
Autistics often use echolalia much more often than non-autistic people, and often continue using it in adulthood. This is partly because our language development can differ significantly from that of allistic (non-autistic) children.
Repeating, or “echoing” speech we’ve heard can be a stim, or a form of communication when we’re not sure how to convey what we want to say in our own words.
An important note
It’s also very important to note that echolalic speech may not always be a direct or accurate representation of what someone is trying to communicate. With verbal tics or disinhibition, a person may say one thing, but actually mean something else.
It’s important to know the person and provide various forms of communication to help reduce frustration, misunderstanding, and miscommunication.
Echolalia can be an important way to:
Communicate something we don’t know how to express otherwise
Reduce anxiety and mentally prepare for an unfamiliar situation
Engage socially and facilitate communication
Engage in repetitive behaviour as a form of self-regulation
Take time to process and think about something that was said
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Neurodiversity MB to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.