ECHOLALIA

 Hello,I love to see you guys still smiling while working with your adorable kids. I know though I absolutely love my job and find joy in my work with autistic children, sometimes this can be too exhausting and frustrating but all it takes is a big word called PATIENCE.  I am sure as parents you definitely have that…. and U guys totally totally rock JJJJ

What does u think!!!!!! Am I echoing? May be maybe not. Today let’s do a big adventure in the world of autistic children….. And understand more about echolalia ….lets learn to empathize and find out alternative ways to help them

In order to develop an appropriate communication intervention program for the verbal child with autism, understanding unconventional verbal behaviors is the very important step. Unconventional verbal behaviors may be produced for communicative as well as non-communicative purposes. Today we will focus on Echolalia; one form of unconventional verbal behavior.

Echolalia:

v  It is the most common form of unconventional verbal behavior. Echolalia is when the child repeats verbal information stated by others. Child mostly echoes from people’s conversation, videos, books, songs etc.

v  Echolalia can include repetition of part of the utterance as well as an identical repetition of the entire spoken utterance.

v  Echolalia can be both immediate( a repetition of something he/she has just heard) or delayed (a repetition of information heard previously, this may be sometimes after minutes, hours, days,weeks,months and years!!!!!)

v  Echolalia is a reflective of how the child process information. Some children with autism processes information as a whole “chunk” without processing the individual words that comprise the utterance.

v   In processing these unanalyzed “chunks” of verbal information. Many children with autism also process part of the context in which these words were stated, including sensory and emotional details.

v  Echolalia occurs in normal development yet decreases as the typically developing child gains more spontaneous generative language. In children with autism, echolalia occurs with greater frequency and lasts for a long period of time as the child with autism typically experience significant difficulty developing spontaneous, generative language skills.

v  The presence of echolalia in children with autism can be a positive indicator for future meaningful language development. It indicates that the child is at least processing language, although at a “surface “level.

It is important to consider how the child is using echolalic utterances, for non-communicative and/or communicative purposes. Although he/she may be using sophisticated utterances like using lengthy sentences, advanced vocabulary, and grammatical forms, echolalic utterances are generally being repeated without a clear or complete understanding of the meaning of the utterance.

Non-communicative purposes:

Echolalia used without communicative intent occurs when the child does not anticipate a response to his verbalization

Ø  Echolalic utterances which do not appear relevant to the situation or context( ex; a child repeats utterances from a TV program during a group/ circle time activity)

Ø  Utterances that may be triggered by something in the situation or context (ex; child walks in to the kitchen and begins saying/echolalic utterance which he have been heard in this context: “ it’s time to eat dinner, take your plate”)

Ø  Utterances that may be used as  self-direction for his own actions ( ex; a child produces echolalic  utterances to engage in a previously taught verbal routine to wash hands : “on the water, get some soap, rinse hands,  turn off the water, dry hands with towel”)

Sometimes children with autism engage in echolalia when they are feeling stressed or anxious.  It is important to determine whether the child’s arousal level could be a precipitating factor for the presence of his echolalia. Ex; I know a child whenever he is upset he says “look there is a mushroom”.

Communicative purposes:

As the child’s cognitive and language skills develop, his use of echolalia may become more functional and communicative. When echolalia is used more communicatively, the child will generally exhibit an increase in spontaneous, appropriate eye gaze and/or body orientation. Echolalia can be used communicatively for the following functions:

Ø   Conversational turn taking: The child recognizes when he is to take a conversational turn and that some sort of response is required. However, the child lacks the spontaneous generative language to engage in the conversation, so he relies upon an echolalic utterance to take his turn in the conversation. Ex; if we ask him “what do you do in the bed room”? The child with autism responds with “wait I am arranging bed for you”. The child takes his conversational turn by using an echolalic utterance from the mother.

Ø  Initiation of communicative interactions: The child with autism is beginning to recognize and notice others. Because he lacks the spontaneous generative skills to initiate a communicative interaction with someone, he uses an echolalic utterance. Ex; a child with autism approaches his aunt who entered in the house, spontaneously engages in direct eye contact and says “ I am going to feel sorry” upon further investigation it is discovered that the child has been watching the movie. In order to initiate a communicative interaction, he uses an echolalic utterance obtained from the movie.

Ø  Requesting: The child uses echolalia for request a desired object, action or event. Ex; the child says “do you want a snack?” to indicate that he wants a snack.

Ø  Protesting: the child uses echolalia to protest the actions of others. Ex; a child who does not want to go for speech therapy program, says “it’s time for swimming” to communicate his dislike of the speech therapy program.

Ø  Indicating affirmation in response to a previous utterance: the child uses echolalia to respond affirmatively to the previous utterance. Ex; another person says “ want to go swing?” the child responds with echolalic response, “ want to swing?”I just want to let you guys know the amount of respect i have for parents of  super duper kids(autistic kids and related disorders).More power to u showered by god and i wish u all...
in the next topic i will share about the strategies and developing intervention programme for echolalia.