Hi, my name is Stephanie, and today I want to talk to you about
echolalia. First off, I believe it's pronounced eh-ko-lay-lee-uh, but I like eh-ko-lah-lee-uh
better. But for the sake of this video and sounding like I know what I'm
talking about a little more than normal, I will go with eh-ko-lay-lee-uh - try to, at least.
Echolalia is very basically repeated or echoed sounds or words. In fact, this is
something that every single child learning how to speak does. We learn
languages through echolalia. When a parent might say to their little,
little kid if they want a bath, that child might try to say the word "bath"
instead of "yes" in response. Parents try to get them to repeat back what they
said. Like, "say, Dada;" Dada;" "say, mama," and try to get them to repeat. So, that's
echolalia. So, why mention something like echolalia on a channel about autism?
Well, that's because a lot of people on the spectrum have echolalia, and most of
them aren't little kids. So, most children actually phase out of using echolalia.
They start to use their own thoughts to communicate and put together their own
words, etc. in using language. However, some people don't actually phase out of
this. These tend to be autistic children who repeat things back in an effort to
communicate or even just because, and we're about to go over that. So, the
interesting thing about echolalia is that it comes in different forms. I
actually experience different forms of echolalia myself. So, the first is
interactive echolalia. This is a form of echolalia- how many
times am I gonna say this word?- that is used to interact or to communicate. Heartline [corrected on screen: Healthline]
breaks it down like this: Turn taking. The person with echolalia uses phrases to
fill an alternating verbal exchange. Verbal completion. Speech is used to
complete familiar verbal routines initiated by others. So, basically, they're
going to be anticipating your response. So, for example, if you say, "what does the
dog say?" and they say, "woof, woof; good job," they're saying the "good job" because
they're used to hearing you say "good job" after they say "woof, woof."
Providing information. Speech may be used to offer new information, but it may
hard to connect the dots. So, they use an example of a parent asking a child what
they want for lunch and the child starts singing a theme song, or whatever it's
called, the jingle or whatever from a commercial about a lunch meat that
they're selling on TV or whatever. So, for them, that's communicating that they want
a ham and cheese sandwich or something to that effect, but that can be kind of
random in the parent's eyes until they connect the dots. And then there's
requests, which a person may use echoed speech to make a request. For
example, that would be like saying, "do you want lunch?" when they're asking for lunch
because they're used to you saying, "do you want lunch" and there being lunch.
So, they figured they'd say "do you want lunch?" and they'll get lunch. Then there
is non-interactive echolalia. So, this is not meant as a means of communication
but only for oneself. There is non-focused speech. Person with echolalia
says something that has no relevance to the situation, such as reciting parts of
a TV show. Now, this kind of echolalia is considered to be self-stimulatory. Then
there is a situation association. Speech is triggered by a situation, visual,
person, or activity but is not a way of communicating. For example, you could see
a name-brand product on the shelf at a store and start singing the jingle to it
because you have made that association and it's just happening then.
There's rehearsal, which the speaker utters the same phrase softly to
themselves a few times before responding in a normal voice. This could be a
practice for an upcoming interaction. So, I think a lot of people actually do this.
It's, again, like rehearsing what they're gonna say or do before they do it. I
don't think that is, like, super exclusive. So, I think a lot of people actually do
that. I think. I don't know. Am I the only person who thinks that? Then there is
self direction, which people might use utterances to walk them through a
process. For example, if you're going through the process of washing your
hands, you might be saying, "turn on the water, rinse your hands, use soap, scrub,
scrub, scrub," you know. Whatever. Those sorts of things to walk through the
steps until they are done with the process of, say, washing their hands. In
addition, echolalia is either immediate or delayed.
So, basically, immediate echolalia would be something like a parent saying, "do you
want a bath?" and the child saying "bath" in response immediately. Then there is
delayed, in which a person repeats the words or sound or what not, not
immediately. So, this could be in interactive or non interactive echolalia.
So, I actually primarily have non-interactive echolalia. I've actually
thrown people off a few times with the whole situation association echolalia.
Suddenly saying things to do with something that I saw and repeating back,
kind of, the song or the words to do with that. But I've also found myself
repeating words to myself over and over and over and over and that's where it's
coming to maybe a self-stimulatory kind of process. And I've actually done some
of the self-direction through certain processes and that's usually especially
if I'm lacking focus. It's almost kind of like using the process that's very
rudimentary that you learn in elementary school or something like, "this
is what you do next," and, "this is what you do next, 'and I verbally will walk myself
through those things, usually when they're just tasks I cannot stand or I'm
having a difficult time of focusing on. It's like an effort to focus, for me, at
least. However, I do, on occasion, experience interactive echolalia. Now,
this is usually kind of difficult for people to understand whether or not is
interactive and it's mostly if the person is there and capable of catching
what I'm doing, if that makes sense. This usually happens in situations with, like,
high emotion and difficulty for me to articulate, if that makes sense.
I kind of, with my speech, it almost kind of regresses when I'm in a high emotive
state or nearing a meltdown. It's very difficult for me. So, for example, there
was a situation where someone had said the word "okay" and it meant something
very painful to me. Now, this would probably be better for you if I gave you
the entire context, however, I don't feel comfortable sharing that with you, so
I'm not going to. But at one point, I was in such distress that I kept on just
saying, "okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay,"
and that's because I can't communicate to you the whole entire situation around
"okay," just that "okay" was very painful for me and that it's bothering me. So, like, I
can't explain to you like all the little things that happened to give you context
to why I'm upset, but "okay" ... is what I'm repeating because that's what evoked
the response for me. So, I do, on occasion, usually in high distress, experience
interactive echolalia. And in that same sense, I also almost always experience
delayed echolalia. Words and phrases and things, especially if they, like, bothered
me, they'll come up out of nowhere. They could be, like, from things years old. A
lot of times, if they were said to me, I can repeat how they sounded and the kind
of cadence that they had. This, also, side note, the whole concept of echolalia
also is why we might start picking up, like, the accent and the sounds of other
people when we're around them a lot, maybe, faster than someone else because,
again, everyone does echolalia in learning language, but it just can be
kind of embarrassing when you start sounding exactly like someone because
you're just, kind of, like, repeating back. Some people get accused of sounding like
they're on the TV or that, like, from the news or whatever, speaking like they're
on the news, just because that's what they're using in their, like,
vocabulary system and sounds. It's weird. In some cases, I have experienced
immediate echolalia, but I think that most people have and that's just in
repeating what I just heard in an attempt to let my brain kind of catch up
and make meaning to the sounds that I made, or that you made, technically, and
I'm repeating back. I think a lot of people have experienced this from time
to time, so I don't think it's that big of a deal. Anyway, thank you so much for
watching today. I hope that this was helpful in understanding what echolalia
is. I still feel that eh-ko-lah-lee-uh is funner to say. So, either way, let me know your
thoughts about this in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video, give it a
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next video. Bye!