Echolalia, bouncing/jumping and other behaviour in an almost 3 year old

[Buruiana]

My DD is 2 years and almost 10 months old. First of all, I never had any concerns about her. She hit all the milestones, her speech developed really well, by the age of 2 she had over 100 words in her vocabulary, was making sentences and was singing nursery rhymes. Physically she's fine too, albeit a little behind some of the children of her age. She is also very social, approaches children and joins in their ganes straight away. Great eye contact too, since she was a baby.

However, just recently I started worrying about certain things that I didn't mind seeing when she was younger.

1. Echolalia. Her speech is still about 30-40% echolalic. She was always like that and that was her way of learning to speak, however I'm surprised that it's still there at her age. For instance she repeats what I say, but also what she says. She would answer a question and the repeat it over and over again until I have to interrupt her.

1. She is bouncing/jumping with excitement which is fine, but it happens a lot. When she meets someone new she goes up to them, tells them her name and starts bouncing with excitemet, like for ever. Also has moments when she zones out for a few mins and starts running from one side of the room to the other and I can tell she is thinking about something. She also tenses her body and starts shaking for a few secs, it used to happen a lot when she was little and we thought she is excited and hilarious, but i don't feel the same about it now.

Can anyone relate to this? Is there anything to worry about?

Oh no, no one?!

Have you spoken to your health visitor op? It may be worth getting a referral to speech and language. Communication wise from your description it sounds like a mixture of echolalia and palilalia. palilalia is when you repeat yourself.

Hm, it's a bit of a tricky one.

1. Maybe I've misunderstood but what you're describing doesn't seem quite like echolalia. Echolalia isn't repeating the answer to a question over and over again. It's creating the answer by repeating something they've heard before in a similar situation without adapting it. So maybe the answer doesn't quite fit the question, or it's an obvious quote from a story or TV, or it's a whole perfect sentence from memory where most kids would just use a key word or two or get the grammar wrong, or it's even in the wrong voice tone or accent because that's what they heard.

Kids do enjoy the sound and sensation and patterns of talking. Little kids repeat themselves and others, especially if they haven't quite got the hang of how to have a conversation. Sometimes it carries on as a kind of stim.

It is hard to tell because echoing and repeating are part of learning and most kids do them, to different extents, and your DD is still very young.

As she gets older you may want to think about the difference between being outgoing and being socially competent. Little kids may be quite happy for another kid to come over and join in, but as they get older it becomes more important for children to pause to look out for signals that other kids want to play, and asking to join in. But again she is still so young, you wouldn't necessarily expect her to have those skills yet.

1. I'm not sure about this. If she went to nursery or playgroup they might be able to give you more of an idea if anything is unusual.

Sorry to be so wishy-washy. If you are worried it might be worth talking to your GP or health visitor.

@AmaryllisNightAndDay thank you very much for your reply.

She used to repeat things from her books or more recently TV programmes (Peppa Pig, The Gruffalo etc), but now she sort of uses them adapted to the conversation we are having. But some things are still odd. Like 'mummy, did you use to go on this big slide when you were a little piggy?' or whilst watching some deer having a splash in the pond in our local woods, she's go: 'look, they are jumping and spashing, they don't need a towel to get dry' (that's from Peppa Pig).

Also mad sentence repetition that is worrying me as I don't see other children doing it. For instance today I asked where she was and she said: I'm in the dining room. I said OK. And then she went on and on: 'I'm in the dining room, I'm in the dining room'..about 10 times. This happens a lot throughout the day with everything, things I say or things she says. We were by the pond a while ago and she likes watching the water birds and she tends to verbalise everything that goes through her head. 'Look, they are having a splash, look they are having a splash'...20 times. Then goes on 'Look, that's a mummy swan and that's a daddy swan' another 15 times. She's very loud too and I feel like people are giving us strange looks.

In terms of playing with other children she is very forward but she had great feedback so far.Last week she met a lovely girl, a bit older and they were playing hide and seek, chasing each other with the girl inviting her to her house at the end of their play. Yesterday she met 2 delightful buys, who were 3 and a bit and they were great with her, despite her being a bit jumpy and saying some odd stuff.

I havent spoken to a HV as we didn't have a great one to be honest, never supported me with any concerns, last time we saw her my DD was 11 months and we moved last year. Also she was developing so nicely I never had any concerns until now.

Is she otherwise on track for understanding the 'nuances' of speech eg; is she asking 'what's that' and 'why?' Etc. Could you otherwise hold a conversation with her? Would she tell you what she'd done or wanted to do for the day? I think it probably all depends on this really. If she 'gets' how to have a proper conversation and is just doing the rest for a bit of fun I'd be less worried if you see what I mean. As pp have said though I'd talk to HV either way x

@Jannt86 she is fine otherwise. She is bright, funny, cheeky and unfortunately very bossy too.

The 'why' and 'what's that' are non-stop!

I think I'll wait until she is 3 and if she doesn't grow out of this I'll be seeking help. I was hoping that perhaps other mums would relate but I seem to be alone in this or perhaps I wasn't able to explain the issues very well, English is not my first language.

Thank you everyone x

@Jannt86 yes, we have proper conversations since she was younger. She goes to nursery once a week and we ask her about her day, she does tell us what she's done, what she's eaten or tells her dad about our days out when he is back from work.

She sounds fine tbh. She's quite ahead of mine who isn't much younger, 28MO. Mine will ask 'ots zat' constantly and occasionally where something is but no why yet. She will talk about what she's done or what she wants to do but usually the answer to either is limited to 'play in softplay' I think if she can hold a conversation there isn't an awful lot to worry about. X

@Jannt86 bless x.
I think developmentally there is quite a big difference between 28 and 34 months.

Funny enough she wasn't so bad today, hardly any bouncing or repeating.

My 3-year-old does the repeating thing. What do you say in response, if she's saying "look mummy they're having a splash, look mummy they're having a splash" on and on? If you respond with a question (eg "yes they are making a big splash, aren't they! It looks fun doesn't it? Would you like to splash like that?" does she answer/turn it into a conversation, or still keep repeating the same thing?

@Buruiana Hiya, long shot but wondering if you are still around and if so, how things are 3 years later? X