Why does she repeat everything I say?

[gpproj]

I have a colleague who will repeat back what is said to her, as if it was her idea. It makes it difficult to have a proper conversation, and she often interrupts to start repeating what I'm/someone else is saying before we've finished our point.

An example was in a meeting this morning, it went something like:
Me: For the project, I was thinking we should do x,y,z and-
Her: Should do x, y, z. Yes exactly, I was thinking for the project we do x, y, z

It's constant, and even when she is asking someone senior a question she will interrupt the answer to start repeating it back as if it was her suggestion to start with.

Does anyone have any idea on what this is and if it's common? I've never come across it before

Is it a form of Echolalia? Do you think she's conscious she's doing it? Does she struggle with any other areas of communication?

One of my family members does it, they are autistic and have no recognition that they do it. We could all be having a conversation, someone will say, "the solution to x is y" and 2 minutes later our autistic relative will say "I really think that when you look at it from all sides, the only real solution to x is y". Cue much fury from the rest of the family - "Alan LITERALLY said that TWO MINUTES ago" and our autistic relative looking puzzled and saying they didn't realise. I'm ND too and find myself repeating things that I might have heard on TV or the radio...catch phrases or singing a little jingle...apparently it's Echolalia and a form of stimming. I'm guessing it's a similar thing with my relative and possibly your colleague. Or perhaps a way of masking? They realise it's something socially acceptable to say and then repeat it so that they fit in and are accepted too?

I don't think she realises, no. Otherwise I think she wouldn't do it as frequently or with senior people. I hadn't considered echolalia as I've only known about echolalia in children, so your post was really interesting. I do think it could be a way of masking, although I don't know this colleague well enough to know if she's neurodiverse.

I was criticising a piece of my own work the other day, just being overly picky and critical with it and she started doing it too by repeating back what I was saying. At first I was offended that she was giving me negative feedback (as opposed to constructive feedback) without being asked to but then I realised she was just repeating back what I was saying, so my own fault really!

neurodivergent*