Echolalia in a 2.5 YO

[Candyflower58]

My nearly 2.5 YO little girl still uses a lot of echolalia and I am starting to think that it is not normal kid in her language acquisition
She

1. sleeps and naps well 13 hours
2. Eats a good variety of food although a bit picky but loves green vegetables
3. Follow 2 step directions even when upset about something .
4. She can focus well for activities like colouring for a good 10 minutes and read a couple of books .
5. Always hold my hand outside
6. Doesn’t have meltdowns . When tantrums she stops within 10 minutes and easily redirected
7. She interacts well with caretakers and family . She plays back and forth with her peers by exchanging and sharing toys , playing with the ball
8. Has appropriate social boundaries and always shares her toys , copies children’s actions when parallel play
9. Doesn’t bite , push , throw .
10. She is excited to go to new places etc
11. She loves getting messy with play doh , colouring
12. She always holds my hand outside
13. Always eager to follow commands like tidying up and bed time

Communication wise

1. speaks in 3-4 word sentences
2. Asks lots of questions : what’s that ? What happened ? What’s that sound ? Where is my toy / daddy ? What have you got ?
3. Answer easy yes and no questions , some easy why questions , open ended ones like what did you do ? What do you want ? What’s / where’s who’s ?
4. Uses easy pronouns like I , me , you mine , ours , yours not always correctly
5. She shows her toys to new people

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 . She can form long spontaneous sentences like “ my bunny is eating food “ when she does the action of feeding bunny but to make a request she still uses single words. At times she says “ I want more pasta” but not a lot .

I did ask professionals and they just brushed it off as normal development that will taper off after 3 .

Maybe you haven't seen it but at least a dozen posters think your DD sounds perfectly typical for a 2.5 yr old and that the real problem lies elsewhere.

And ?
So what it's normal for small kids to repeat conversation and behaviour it's how they learn.

Only because they don't know who you are. You post this thread constantly.

The main reason is because I see how different she is from her peers . When I say professionals I mean HV and paediatrician so obviously not knowledgeable of more subtle forms of the spectrum like level 1 or high functioning. Paediatrician did say that most level 1 still don’t get picked up until later on when social demands change

I knew exactly who you were from the format of your post, which I've seen on here at least four of five time?!

You post a long list of things which are normal for a child of that age.

You say professionals aren't worried

You ignore the overwhelming majority of answers saying it's NORMAL

Why are you looking for issues where there are none? PLEASE seek some help for this anxiety or it will rub off on your poor DD who sounds like she is developing perfectly normally

You realise the paediatrician can often be on the panel for diagnosing autism?

My eldest was 2 years and 2 months old before he said any recognisable word. By the time he was starting school he was still saying some words backwards, or at least mixing up the sounds within a word. He is now a functioning adult, holding down a good job (admittedly in IT, not the most sociable environment).

I've never read the OP's posts before but I agree with those who say your dd sounds totally within normal ranges. Try to relax and enjoy her more OP. Childhood passes so quickly.

Yes I do , my mom is a paediatrician but not a developmentally one . I did ask about high functioning or level 1 and was told that nowadays the spectrum is too broad but he did say that for an official diagnosis traits must have an impact on the day to day life

And what does your mother think ,given she works with children all day every day?

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

She is a general paediatrician .. she works in Italy and we have a more stringent diagnostics criteria for asd . Basically one or two traits doesn’t make it for an official diagnosis . She thinks lots of kids are being overly diagnosed these days even if don’t seem to struggle . To her to consider a referral to a neuropsychiatric a child must present social communication and interaction deficits . She has no concerns for mine .

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.

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.

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.

She sounds plenty conversational.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.