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 .

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

You again? Bore off.

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.