Echolalia in toddler

[Ladybug1235]

My little girl just turned 26 months and she can do the following :

1. Expressive language : Has over 200 words and speaks in 2/3 sometimes 4 word sentences including connectors , adjective and verbs like “ bunny sitting on the train “
2. Good receptive language with two step instructions at all times and she listens and responds to other members of the family .
3. She is Social to some extent but it takes a while to warm her up and then she interacts well with adults and her peers ( although she still wants me close by ) She engages with kids if it is 1/1 interaction like playing with ball or on the beach but if there are lots of kids she just looks at them / what they are doing .
4. She eats and sleeps like a champ so far all 12 hours and all type of food apart from scrambled eggs 🍳
5. She can answer questions like (?what/where /who’s , what is mommy/daddy doing ? What color is dolly ? Where does the hat go ? What do you want ?
6. Asks questions like / what’s that . What happened and what’s the sound , why are you sad / scared etc
7. She can easily transition from her house to a new one without problems and she is not repetitive in any way apart from when she goes on the swing at the park and doesn’t want to get off to try other things 😅.
8. Tantrum wise she is fairly good at self soothing and her tantrums don’t last more than 5 minutes .

She still tends to repeat almost verbatim what we say “ the entire phrase and I know that immediate echolalia is a ref flag and someone suggested GLP

Like when she wakes up from nap : she started saying “ it is empty “ referring to a box in her room because I told her that it was empty a while back . I know it is not typical and I wish I knew how to help her

She still makes requests with single words at times but I was told not to be overly concerned about that as long as there is combination of words into phrases.

Ps no one seems to be concerned

My eldest was like this and ended up autistic.
He was precocious in way he spoke very early on, using words like ridiculous well before 2yo.

When you say echolalia, do you mean something like this:
You say: should we go for a walk?
Child says: should we go for a walk? (Rather than saying yes/no)

OR

Do you mean she repeats phrases she hears on TV for example and if so, does she use them in a right context?

responds with yes or no questions like that . For reference I know she is on the spectrum . She never scripts or repeat tv shows .. so in your case echolalia never went away ?

Hi I appreciate your words but as you can read from other posts , she sounds that she might be autistic

Kindly OP you sounds really intense. This post reads more like a worrying reflection of your mental health than it does any concerns about your daughter

I appreciate it is easy to come across intense through a screen and I am sorry but I am worried as she doesn’t sound like her peers

So give her a choice so you're modeling answers. Say "what do you want?" Then say "do you want strawberry ice-cream or chocolate ice-cream?" That way she has to choose one out of two options rather than being left with a wide open field.

I'm still not clear on why you think she uses echolalia though. Can you give a clear example?

So my son is autistic this was our experience of language -

no babbling at all (as a baby)
at your dd age he could say juice, peppa, mama, nanna (banana) only
he couldn’t follow instructions
he had horrific meltdowns that would last hours
he completely ignored other children

He developed echolalia as a form of
communication when he was around 3. So I might say “it is hot today” and he would rely “hot today “ about from about 20 key words he did this exclusively. There was no meaning behind it i could have said on a boiling hot day it is cold today and he would reply cold today.
He used 2/3 words sentences until he was around 6 when his language skills developed. Even now at ten he will often say what he thinks is appropriate without the understanding behind it. He doesn’t understand emotions, takes conversation literally. It’s very obviously different to other children his age.

I don't think that is clear at all.

I have 3 children with ASD. DD1 was given a 'language delay' tag by the SaLT when she was 3, although she actually had a (severe) language disorder, which was finally properly diagnosed at 15.

DD1 would refer to herself in the 3rd person, and describe items rather than naming them. So, she would say 'DD1 want bowl eat' (hungry), 'it pink and it go weeeee' (I want to go on the slide), 'chicken with handle' (satay stick).

But there were so many other things going on for DD1 - attention span of less than 30 seconds, no sense of danger, ataxic gait, developmental deadly, then learning disability, sensory difficulties... It really was obvious that her path was not conventional. It took until she was 15 for an ASD diagnosis to be added to her list of issues, because it was such a complicated picture.

DD2 was not picked up as having a language disorder, but she did have one. She would say things like 'when will my legs grow like tree legs grow?' and even now she completely misinterprets what is being said, often. Again, she had fairly obvious signs that something wasn't right. She didn't cope with mainstream school despite being fairly average intelligence. Now, at almost 18, she still can't tell her teachers if something is wrong, despite being in a school where all the students get 1:1 provision.

DD3 actually seemed fairly typical in language until her early teenage years, when everything got more complicated. Now she struggles because she's so literal.

I genuinely don't think worrying is going to help you. If your DD has ASD, other signs will become apparent. Nobody can tell you that she doesn't, for sure, but the reality is that she's doing really well.

If she has ASD, there will be far more signs. Just try to enjoy her.

If you are concerned ask your hv to
revier your child and it a referral in to speech and language but tbh everything you described sounds normal.

She sounds exactly like most 2 year olds I know. You've posted on almost every thread about the fact your daughter can't answer an open ended question despite being told by almost everyone that a 2 year old can't process these type of questions. When will you accept actually accept this advice?

And to be blunt you do sound intense. You post thread after thread after thread with lists of completely normal toddler behaviour with no real indication of what the problem is. You don't seem to take on board any advice from professionals or posters with experience and then you'll come back with another thread where you go on about another non issue and where you've already diagnosed your child has having adhd/autism without any real understanding or knowledge on your part about these conditions and with no evidence to point to your daughter having these conditions.

I have full sympathy with pnd and anxiety. I had it myself severely and its very debilitating. However what concerns me is that these threads speak more about your state of mind than anything wrong with your daughter. You don't seem to have done anything about seeking help for these anxieties or have any self awareness of how this obsession of self diagnosing your daughter will impact her going forward and impact on her own self esteem and relationship with yourself.

No one is going to give you the answers you need because you seem stuck in this cycle of thinking there's a problem and constantly trying to get validation for your obsessive thinking.

If you know she's on the spectrum why did you post this?

Yea I have gone down the route and have asked for a paediatrician referral which was not accepted based on the signs I have provided

On your last thread I gave you a link to look at. Did you try that?

Is there any way mumsnet can stop this poster? It can't be helpful when the odd person validates her concern. She's clearly not able to take in the majority view that there's nothing wrong with her child, so I don't think the constant posting is helpful.

I feel desperately, desperately sorry for the daughter, who is constantly being told she's not developing normally.

Honestly I think we're nearing Munchsusens by proxy territory here. It's so sad to watch.

Honestly at this stage, I am getting the impression that OP wants her daughter to have autism. She is absolutely obsessed with the idea no matter how many medical professionals or posts she gets telling her that her daughter is fine.
My DS didn’t have as wide a range of language at that age and he definitely isn’t autistic!

It's because everything you say points to your daughter being a developmentally normal 2 year old.

You're just going to have to see how it goes, OP. Try not to be so anxious about missing something that you keep seeing stuff that isn't there.

It’s understandable why you are wondering about autism. My autistic DC had some similar presentations but female type autism wasn’t as well understood then. Traits tend to become clearer,if they are there, as kids get older. That’s why there is frequently a minimum age for assessment.
While not feeling listened to may be frustrating can you think about what a diagnosis at this very young age achieve? What would change for your child? I’d concentrate on having fun which suits you and your DC. It already sounds like you’re tuned in to preferences. Go with that. Enjoy yourselves. The rest will come in time.

I completely agree

Your basis of knowing she is on the spectrum is that she doesn't script or repeat TV shows? Most 2 year olds I know don't do this. It's very clear you have little understanding of language and development and you're taking things you read without any knowledge about them and using them as evidence something is "wrong" with your child.

Please read other posts on this thread and you will notice that there some mums with kids with the same presentation who validates my concerns

My daughter was On the Autistic Spectrum and learned to speak using Echolalia and was quite obvious.

Her words/phrases/sentences sounded very cut and pasted together.
She used the same phrases and accents including body language and facial expression of the person who she used the phrase from.

Yet if you hadn’t known her you would think she was using her own words but she had a different style of speaking when using her words compared to the words she used that were copied.
Hers were very basic and more fluid and very simple
The echolia was stilted in her use and was generally more complex in words and phrases but she was absolutely unable to tell you what the words or phrases/sentences actually meant but you could absolutely say which person she had ‘lifted’ it from because any accent, tone etc was copied beautifully.

She had a habit in primary school of copying the head teacher when she was trying to talk. Complete with Scottish accent, head tilt and hands on the hips.

Chil all learn speech and words at a different rate and at that age seems in the usual range
I have 4 children and all have had a range of different abilities in speech.

And I doubt those posters recognise you from your dozens of other threads.
This is why a PP suggested you stop posting!! It’s not helpful. Nobody on here can tell you that your DD definitely has autism. In real life you have been told that she doesn’t warrant any concern but you keep posting over and over and over again until you find someone, anyone who says you might be right.
Would you feel happier if she was autistic?

Yes thank you for your kind words x yes the hv said they won’t assess this early . I was hoping to find some parents with the same presentations or similar and what I can do to support her

Try to stop analysing her and enjoy her