Echolalia

[amymouse]

DD (3.8, so still young) still very much has a lot of what I suspect is echolalia and delayed expressive language. We are awaiting an ADOS assessment later next month. She also has a brilliant memory and has memorised a large number of her favourite story books, word perfect. Increasingly she is spending a lot of time just wandering around reciting book after book to herself or her stuffed toys. She doesn't seem outwardly or obviously anxious, but I was wondering if behaviour like this could be a symptom that things, somewhere, somehow, need tweaking? Or maybe it just comes under the umbrella of "mad 3yo behaviour" and I am being paranoid....

Its probably different for every child. DS is 9 and has ASD and sensory processing disorder. He often sits or walks about muttering and talking to himself. For him its usually because he is content. For others is because of anxiety.
Look at her body language and try and work out whether she looks relaxed or anxious. It might just be part of her unique personality.

Thanks,

Yes, we've actually found it really useful (less the book reciting but definitely the reptetative aspect) in helping her realise how to to handle things. She struggles to come up with things socially, but can repeat a script back to help her manage

Hi amymouse. My ds is 4 and a half and is on the waiting list for asd assessment.

Ds had a severe speech and language delay and had quite intensive speech therapy for around 18 months, from about 2.5 and has now been re assessed as having a moderate speech and language delay, and disordered language.

He was very late to talk at all and has only just started using a awful lot of scripts in his speech. Like your dd he lines up and recites to toys etc and uses a lot of non functional speech like announcing random information totally out of the blue.

It is a normal part of development but ds does it soo repetitively and intensely and instead of imaginative role play.

I also thought it may be related to anxiety but looking at his pattern of behaviour I don't think it is for him. But a bit like zzzzz said he does seem to do it as a kind of wind down.

Hi amymouse, your DD and mine (3.11) sound so similar! We have masses of echolalia here, both immediate and delayed. The immediate stuff happens when she is interested in engaging/conversation, but the delayed stuff happens more when she is trying to disengage (so, will suddenly quote a line from a favourite book or tv programme at random if she is losing motivation to join in, or is anxious). She also has a memory like your DD, and has memorised verbatim loads of books. She too recites them to herself a lot of the time - either sitting with the book as if reading aloud to herself, or else without the book, at which moments she gets very animated and gestural, and looks as if she is performing on stage to a full house - except that of course she's not .

I don't know if this is of any help, but we have literally just started an ABA programme for her, and her consultant is of the opinion that, for DD, the delayed echolalia has a self-stimulatory function. We're only a week into the programme though, so this is just an initial theory.

Yes my dd used to do a lot of echolaila, still does sometimes( e.g dd it's starting to rain to which she will say oh is it starting to rain?) which I've been told by a VB therapist that it's a normal part of language development.