What does your 2/3 year old talk about? Is it unusual for DS to mainly quote stories?

[prettygirlincrimsonrose]

DS has just turned 3. His language is a bit delayed and I think his speech is too. Been to a speech therapy group and had some support to help him, but I suspect in some ways he's closer to a child a few months younger.

I'm just a bit concerned about how he talks, and I don't really see any other children to compare him with. Basically he names things he can see/knows he's about to see, says what he's doing and asks for things, and then his other talking is reciting stories he remembers and saying phrases from tv/stories. He wouldn't make his toys do things and talk about that, for example, or tell me to pretend something. He's lovely and enthusiastic and the stories are all very sweet (had most of the Gruffalo today) but I'm a bit worried because it reminds me of one of the boys in George and Sam, the Charlotte Moore book about her autistic sons (I think George pretty much exclusively quoted and didn't really make up sentences about what he thought, imagined etc). I'm going to try and explain what I mean to the speech therapist next time we talk, but I just wondered if anyone else has had something similar and how it turned out.

In my experience and my friends experience the pretending toys are having conversation come about 4/4.5 yrs old.

My daughter did this. She is on the pathway to an autism diagnosis. It’s called echolalia and specifically scripting (the echoing of tv programmes and books).

My daughter is almost 4 now and the scripting has pretty much gone but her speech is very repetitive.

The scripting / echolalia is a “red flag” for autism so it’s definitely worth mentioning to the SALT. Echolalia is seen as a good thing though - it is your son working out how to use language!

My DD is 3y4m, she was also a bit speech delayed and her speech isn't super clear yet.
She does talk a lot about stories or tv shows she has seen but more incorporates it into her play rather than quotes it, so for example everything is "baby Jesus" doing things at the moment (I'm guessing nursery read a nativity story a lot!)
Or she'll build something vaguely bridge-like and do some "trip trapping" from 3 Billy Goats. We had a long Golidlocks phase where every game involved multiple bowls of porridge.
And she does sing snippets of songs eg she has sung "do you wanna build a snowman? Do you wanna build a snowman? Do you wanna build a snowman?" over and over and over today.

My daughter did this with phrases from books, CBeebies and real life conversations.

She knew The Tiger Who Came To Tea verbatim at 30 months.

She was diagnosed with autism aged 6.

Thanks for sharing, I didn't really know about scripting so it's been interesting having a look, and will definitely mention it. He doesn't seem to use it to ask for things, it seems to be more entertaining himself, and with reminding he will ask using sentences rather than single words. I guess it could be something you'd expect in a slightly younger child but with DS's language delay it hasn't dropped off yet, or it could be a sign of autism. To be honest I often echo what he says to model speech (and I used to recite Gruffalo etc when we were out to distract him/make him smile and encourage walking) so I could maybe do more to talk in other ways.

Your situation seems familiar to what I was going through a few years ago. Please take notes on what's happening with your child. If you ever meet a kid who is stuck on echolalia for "long", please don't term it as stimming or let it slide.

You can use echolalia for speech generation. I have written about my personal experience with my child(on the spectrum) here.

www.musingsandreviews.com/blog/special-needs/two-primary-language-acquisition-styles/

The way he has moved up the stages with mitigated echolalia is so amazing. I dread to think what if I did not get self-involved and stuck with therapies alone!

Hi, just wondered if you had any update on how he’s doing now? My daughter does something similar and like you I haven’t heard others doing it

Hi
hope you can see this but do you remember when the echolalia / scripting started ?

So DS is now 6 and was diagnosed with autism last year, which we were kind of expecting. I can't remember exactly when the echolalia started (probably not that long before I posted) but it later dropped off and we got lots of questions, and then more of a mixture of questions, telling us things etc.