delayed echolalia

[maggiems]

Hi, I was reading a message on another board recently about a mother who was concerned that her 3 year old child had delayed echolalia. Her DD recites extracts from her favourite TV shows, both on her own at home and in preschool but only to children that she doesn?t know. She also acts out the scenes by using props but always in the same way, i.e. insists on getting a particular slipper to act out Cinderella. She was concerned that her DD was autistic and was having her evaluated despite the fact that she had no other symptoms. She could not find delayed echolalia described as a symptom of anything else. I was surprised to hear this described as echolalia. I would have thought that autistic children generally would not imitate the actions of characters on TV. I am aware that they can repeat long monologues. My 3 yr old DS does something similar at home, not as an alternative to communicating with people but when he is playing on his own or to put on a bit of a show in front of Granny. He acts out a few scenes from one of his favourite shows by turning a chair into a boat, puts on a hat and pretends to go up a river. He drops his hat, keys etc as in the show and says the same things as the character, not long monologues, just a few phrases. I never worried about it as I thought this was the beginning of imaginative play and saw it as a positive thing. He communicates well, uses sentences of 8 or 9 words, asks and answers questions. However he sometimes copies what his older brother says, egg if his older brother says, ?You told me I could have a sweet Mom?, he will repeat it also. However its always in context and I know he understands what he?s saying. He follows directions well and his understanding is fine. He has no autistic symptoms but do you think what I think of, as imaginative/imitative play is something else?Rachel

Hi, I was reading a message on another board recently about a mother who was concerned that her 3 year old child had delayed echolalia. Her DD recites extracts from her favourite TV shows, both on her own at home and in preschool but only to children that she doesn?t know. She also acts out the scenes by using props but always in the same way, i.e. insists on getting a particular slipper to act out Cinderella. She was concerned that her DD was autistic and was having her evaluated despite the fact that she had no other symptoms. She could not find delayed echolalia described as a symptom of anything else. I was surprised to hear this described as echolalia. I would have thought that autistic children generally would not imitate the actions of characters on TV. I am aware that they can repeat long monologues. My 3 yr old DS does something similar at home, not as an alternative to communicating with people but when he is playing on his own or to put on a bit of a show in front of Granny. He acts out a few scenes from one of his favourite shows by turning a chair into a boat, puts on a hat and pretends to go up a river. He drops his hat, keys etc as in the show and says the same things as the character, not long monologues, just a few phrases. I never worried about it as I thought this was the beginning of imaginative play and saw it as a positive thing. He communicates well, uses sentences of 8 or 9 words, asks and answers questions. However he sometimes copies what his older brother says, egg if his older brother says, ?You told me I could have a sweet Mom?, he will repeat it also. However its always in context and I know he understands what he?s saying. He follows directions well and his understanding is fine. He has no autistic symptoms but do you think what I think of, as imaginative/imitative play is something else?

I am not an expert on autism and there a lot of people on here better qualified to answer than me but I think it is true that most children will copy and act out scenes from favourite shows etc and that doesn't mean they are autistic. As I understand it delayed echolalia is often out of context or not properly appropriate - so the upset child might use a phrase that a TV character has used when upset, rather than find their own words. Or they may just repeat the phrase because they like the sound of it but have no understanding of what it means. And as you suggest it may be the main form of speech.

Again I am not best qualified to answer, but you don't sound like you should be worrying to me. It just sounds like imaginative play.

Hi maggiems,

I have a DS who is five who is on the autistic spectrum and another aged three who isn't. My DS1 was very echolalic when he was younger, both immediate repetition of phrases he heard and delayed repetition. However, and to reassure you, my DS2 who is very non-autistic LOVES acting out things from film and TV, spends most of his time pretending to be Pippin from Come Outside, when he's not pretending to be one of the helpers at his nursery or pretending to be a mummy or whatever! So from what you say about your 3 year old, it doesn't sound like you have cause to worry.

I have 2 autistic boys. My eldest is now 4yrs old and used to use a lot of echolalia when he first started to talk. He not only copied the words but also the accent, intonation etc. He generally used to repeat the words immediately but also used other people's phrases to explain what he wanted, eg if he wanted help with something he would say "Mummy will help you" rather than "Help me, Mummy." As his language improved the echolalia disappeared. Your son's language sounds fine to me. Young autistic children also tend to get the words who/what/where/why mixed up so don't always know how to ask questions. From the sounds of things your son has no such difficulties.

Ds1 will act out a couple of things from TV etc but these tend to be repetitive games that don't go anywhere. If ssomeone tried to get him to alter a tiny detail then he would get extremely angry. He certainly wouldn't be able to imagine a hat, keys etc. That would be far too abstract for him.

Obviously I don't know your son at all but from your post I would say that in your position I would rule out autism.

Coppertop how and when did you discover that that your boy's were autistic.

I think what you're describing is scripting, not strictly echolalia. Scripting is just as you say, repeating whole parts of conversations or dialogue heard elsewhere. Echolalia is usually repeating what someone has just said to you and I'm sure there's ground inbetween the two. If a child is autistic then echolalia is a good sign as there is something to work with , something to shape and develop into something more appropriate, much better than no speech at all.
Your description of your DS sounds normal to me (not that I know normal!). The thing with autism is that often a lot of the behaviours are exactly what another child would do but its the perseveration and repetition and inability to move on that marks the difference, therefore making these behaviours NOT stages of development but stages where they can get stuck.

Thanks so much for your responses which were very informative. Just me being a paranoid mother!