Echolalia in a 2.5 YO

Hello again. My DD also had a lot of echolalia - and yes, it was one thing that was taken into account in her ASD assessment, but the thing is that a lot of the individual traits when taken alone are not remarkable. Mine flapped her hands (still does) - well lots of two year olds do. Echolalia - the professionals are right that this is normal until three and sometimes beyond. From what you describe, your child does not meet any of the qualifiers for even an assessment, because she is developing completely typically, within the bounds of also having her own personality and quirks.

She almost always repeats phrases that we say but not questions and if I say to her “ hello my baby’s name “ she just repeats it .

So you say "hello Cynthia!" and she says "hello Cynthia!" Have you tried making it into a game and then saying "hello Mummy!" to see if she repeats that back? One of the songs they do at most toddler groups is one where they sing "he-llo Cynthia, he-llo James, he-llo Layla, it's nice to see you here" and so on round the circle. They don't do that to torture parents, they do it because it is developmentally normal for children to need to learn how to do greetings.

She can form long spontaneous sentences like “ my bunny is eating food “ when she does the action of feeding bunny

She is using whole sentences to do imaginative play combined with socially appropriate gesture - these are things that were entirely absent in my child at the same age. I know all autistic children are different but I do not know a single autistic child who was able to do this at 2.

but to make a request she still uses single words. At times she says “ I want more pasta” but not a lot

So she can do it, she's still learning - you can encourage her through repeating back, so when she asks for a drink by saying "drink" you say "please can I have a drink mummy" as you give her the drink. Then as she takes it you say "ta" or "thank you" to encourage her to learn to do that. This doesn't come naturally even for NT children, you do still have to teach them manners and vocabulary. It's not like puppies who just know how to woof.

You again? Bore off.

I really hope OP is reading these replies. Echolalia is a normal part of speech development and nothing to worry about in a preschool child when there are no other characteristics causing concern.

Please take your Mum’s advice, I agree with her. Your child is normal and does not need speech therapy. Echolalia is repeating words and that is how young children learn language and is absolutely normal for a 2 year old. If she was repeating sentences all the time from film or videos she had seen or something (delayed echolalia) I might be more concerned. Her understanding and spoken language skills are fine for her age from what you have said . Please do relax and stop worrying.

Don't you post this all the time? So tedious. Biggest risk to your child's health is whatever you have going on and the impact it will have on her.

Oldest DC has palilalia (form of echolalia) age 7 and has for a couple years. No other issues. It can be associated with autism but not always

Ahhhh OP I recognise you from so many of your other posts. You must be exhausted. This consumes you. I so wish for you and your child’s happiness you could find a way through this for your own peace of mind. It feels like endless reassurance from MN posters isn’t enough for you. Your child sounds lovely. So lovely. And HEALTHY. So many people would long for what you have - please please try and take each day as it comes and accept your daughter for who she is - potential ASD diagnosis or not (and this is NOT me saying it sounds like there is a diagnosis to be had!!). Your crippling anxiety and endless questioning will have zero impact on a potential diagnoses, but one day your daughter will be 15 and you’ll have spent the majority of her life so wrapped in a veil of your own worry and misery that you’ve missed the most precious bits. If you need to feel like you’re being proactive then pursue private SLT and OT which help children with ASD (I speak from experience), but don’t expect them to diagnose your child, especially when she’s still so young.

Good luck x

Why are you so keen for her to be autistic? Is this like a Munchausen thing? SHE CAN TALK AND CONVERSE whilst I try to work what my possibly autistic three year old with few single words wants each day to eat or what he wants to do!

Are you that same poster that posts the same thing all the time?

No offence your child can speak sentences. My nearly three and a half year old is stuck on a couple of one word words. She doesn't sound that bad.

I recognise what you are feeling, I think. This may be projecting too much, but I developed severe health anxiety during the pretty traumatic 'pregnancy journey' and very early birth of my eldest. I was terrified of everything. I googled endlessly. I barely showered because I thought he'd stop breathing when I was showering.

I recognise something of that obsessive thinking in the nature and repetition of your posts, and in the tunnel vision of them.

In time my anxiety did get easier. Counselling helped, and starting to do things for myself again.

I realise your worries are about different things. I now have a 2.5 year old - yours sounds more advanced speech-wise, and i am not even remotely worried about mine, although he repeats phrases back too. But you are worried, and no amount of people telling you that it's normal is alleviating your concerns.

So what i would say is - and this is something I decided after one of my many panicked doctor's trips with DC1 - even if something is wrong - make sure every hour they spend is as happy and fulfilled as you can make it. Appreciate the little moments. Her condition is at least by no means life-limiting or life-threatening. So as hard as it is, take it day by day. Google less (it's hard!). Enjoy things, and if one day a professional diagnosis is made, adapt to things then. She honestly sounds like she's doing amazingly.

Does she go to nursery? If she does then ask the nursery staff what they think. Although we can't formally diagnose most experienced staff will know if there is a concern or not even from two years old. I'm at a point where I can pick up most children who will be diagnosed with ASD, ADHD, S&L issues and global delay after working with them for a few days, often from babies but definitely by two and half.

At that age, there we no traits. Just the echolalia. Initially we thought she’s grow out of it but she didn’t. Nursery teachers grew increasingly frustrated with her so we took her (when she was about 3.5yrs) to a speech therapist who gave us strategies to help. Recently at age 4.5 she became selectively mute and didn’t show typical ASD signs. However we spoke to a NHS developmental consultant and we went down the ADOS route and had her diagnosis. she doesn’t display what people would describe as typical ASD traits and apparently this is quite common with girls.
Apols if using the word Resolve was rude ( one of the posters has called me out on this), I didn’t mean it in a negative way, just trying to help as I was constantly dismissed when i initially raised concerns about my DD’s echolalia and wish I had gone with my gut and got her the SLT help she needed sooner.
Yours is probably too young to diagnose for ASD but if you speak to a SLT they can give you strategies to help with her speech. And you can keep an eye out as she develops on whether she needs an ASD diagnosis. I didn’t think about ASD so when my daughter needed to be diagnosed I was sent to many diff doctors till one pointed me in the right direction. Wasted a lot of time.
Going back to the echolalia - With my DD I had an initial assessment with SLT, then my husband and I had weekly online sessions with SLT who gave us strategies to help with her speech development and the echolalia stopped after about 6 months. There’s no harm in you just having one assessment with a SLT, that would be my advice.

This is mainly a me issue but I'm going to share it anyway because I think you need to hear it.
I have an autistic child with a significant development delay (diagnosed by professionas, not just my opinion). Every single day I worry about if he is happy, will he ever catch up, will he ever have friends, will he ever be able to live independently.
Your posts that list everything your DD does, which is typical, sometimes even advanced, for her age, really trigger me. To see someone try and look for attention and for someone to say there is something 'wrong' with their perfectly developing child is so ignorant. I also worry it's going to impact on your DDs confidence or maybe you have some type of fabricated illness syndrome and will end up hindering her development.

Appreciate and praise how amazing your child is doing ffs.

Well you can my son was diagnosed at three but nothing the Op has written here or on any of her many threads suggest autism.

All children are unique and develop at their own stages.
There's no point obsessing over behaviour at this age as the brain is still developing and you can't diagnose autism in younger children anyway.
Maybe just try to enjoy your child for who they are.

Echolalia is normal for children under 3.
A simple Google search or call to the health visitor will confirm this for you.

She sounds very conversational to me!

FWIW my child had echolalia. He also was completely non-verbal until well past his 5th birthday. He had not a single word at the age of 2 and certainly no sentences. To me, looking through that prism, (and i have a younger child who is completely developmentally normal) your child sounds like she is bright as a button and developing perfectly normally. Repeating what they hear is a natural part of language development and processing. Lord, we all do it when we learn a second language!

I think you are looking for issues that are not there tbh.

Can you explain in what way you think she's different from her peers?

What is it in OPs descriptions of the child do you think need 'resolving'?

She sounds plenty conversational.

Your child is probably developing normally, but you are not developing normally as a mum. I've reported your post. Please seek out some support from a health professional.

Disagree - she's 2.5 and there's a large range of 'normal' - ignore the 'averages' and targets.
My daughter spoke very little until around 3 and didn't walk until nearly 2 and had severe allergies. I was worried... She's now just turned 13, yesterday walked a 20 mile walk for a charity event and is top sets in ALL subjects as well as having grown out of severe allergies. Easy to say and hard to do but you'll drive yourself mad worrying - give it time and don't focus on 'average' milestones.

OK, OP, seems like you won’t be satisfied until someone says ‘Yes, your daughter is showing a trait of ASD.’

So, yes, your daughter is showing a trait of ASD.

What now?

1. watch and wait, or
2. seek an assessment either through your GP or privately

Best of luck.

I thought I recognised the way the original OP was written!!