My nearly 3 year old (who I have posted about a couple of times recently) does what I understand is called delayed echolalia and/or scripting. We have concerns about his socialising with other children but I've only just realised what echolalia is and that it's a sign of ASD.
He uses the odd phrase from books in normal speech in correct context: eg. he will say: "I've got a very good idea, let's play X game" (with 'I've got a very good idea' being a line from Mog) or "When [sister] is bigger, I'll show her just what to do" (with 'He can show him just what to do' being a line from another book).
He also quotes chunks from books/tv programmes, while acting them out. He does this in an imaginative and non-rigid way, eg. using different every day items to represent objects from the books. He does this a lot - a lot of his play centres around this acting out at the moment.
The echolalia doesn't get in the way of his functional speech at all, which is absolutely fine. He doesn't repeat what other people say and is generally fine at having short conversations.
Is this a sure sign of ASD (particularly when taken together with poor social skills?)? Or could it be within 'normal' range? Should we take him to a child psychologist for assessment?