As both a parent and professional in the autism world I've seen a lot of echolalia in the
past two decades.
So echolalia is a child with autism repeating what you just said.
So if you say, do you want a cookie, the child can either say cookie or do you want a cookie?
Either way we're talking about the child echoing you without answering your question.
So today I'm gonna talk all about Echolalia.
Hi, I'm Dr Mary Barbera, autism mom behavior analyst and bestselling author of the verbal
behavior approach, how to teach children with autism and related disorders, which is now
available in over 10 languages.
So in my career as a behavior analyst and even as before I was behavior analyst when
I just had Lucas, I did have some experience with Echolalia, both immediate Echolalia and
delayed Echolalia.
that's hard to say.
So, um, several months ago I did do another video blog on delayed echolalia, which is
really scripting and stimming.
So I gave the example where Lucas would, we would take him to the park when he was young,
before I knew anything about autism before he was diagnosed.
And my husband and I would read him the sign please do not feed the duck.
Quack, quack.
We would go to the next sign, we'd say the same thing.
And then in the middle of the night he'd wake up and he would start repeating, please do
not feed the duck.
Quack, quack, not that clear.
But, um, what he was doing is he was engaging in it's scripting, which is delayed echolalia
he was remembering what we said and he was saying it, but a bigger concern for kids with
autism and for professionals that's often confusing, is what to do when a child with
autism, whether they're your client or their child or your child starts repeating what
you say and starts just touch your head.
Or do you want a cookie?
And he's just reciting back.
Some behavior analysts even have a problem.
If you say, touch your head and the child says, touch your head or touch the banana.
And the child echoes, touch the banana.
Many kids with autism, uh, as they're completing the instruction will echo and I don't really
treat that, that sometimes will go away on its own.
But the do you want a cookie and the child says, do you want a cookie?
Or I had a client once who would repeat the say part.
So “say banana” the child would say “say banana.”
That's obviously an error and we need to treat this Echolalia to get the child to either
answer yes or no to get the child to respond with at least one word.
Do you want a cookie and the child says cookie still technically an error but you know if
the child's not ready for yes, no, then that's appropriate.
So I did do a video blog on yes and no and developed a procedure on yes and no back when
I was trying to help Lucas learn this important skill.
And then my other clients, I've done some case studies on yes and no.
Getting back to okay the child echoes say they echo, do you want a cookie?
And they echo the whole thing.
Do you want a cookie?
The first thing is we need to do an assessment, not just that little thing.
We need to do assessment of the whole child.
Because what that's telling me is they don't understand the language and they're probably
not ready for, uh, you to be asking them things like that.
You want to do an assessment?
I, in my professional career, I have really found the VB MAPP, um, to be the assessment
that I like to use for these kids because I've been using that.
I helped start field testing it back in 2006.
It was published in 2008.
I've been using the VB MAPP for kids who are not conversational ever since.
And I found it to be a really helpful, um, assessment.
So I would recommend the VB MAPP, not just the milestones, but also the barriers, the
transition assessment and the echoic assessment.
There's also another really important assessment subtests that is, uh, was created by Dr Mark
Sundberg with the VB MAPP, but it's not actually a part of the VB MAPP.
It's a supplement.
It's called the intro verbal sub tests.
And you can get this available online for free and I can link it in the, uh, in the
blog description for you to be able to download it.
It's a really helpful tool to begin to assess the child's ability to answer questions so
the child might not be able to answer, uh, what's something, uh, that you eat for breakfast?
But they might be able to answer you sleep in a, what does a cow say?
You know, easier response, easier questions they can answer, get the Inter verbal response.
But when it gets to be harder, that's where they can't answer that.
So doing a VB MAPP assessment, doing an intro, verbal subtests is great.
And then making a plan not just to get rid of the Echolalia because a lot of times the
Echolalia, I mean the Echolalia does have some benefits.
Number one, we know the child can talk and many of our kids that have this echolalia
actually their, their articulation isn't, isn't that bad either.
So those are all good things.
We just have to direct that Echolalia to make it more functional and to get the child to
the next level.
My online courses utilize the VB MAPP, the intraverbal subtests, self care checklist,
all resources from Dr Mark Sundberg.
I've also created my own assessments and we basically step back, look at the whole picture,
and help both parents and professionals figure out the next step for their own clients and
children.
So if you would like to learn more about how to assess the whole picture and how to use
the Echolalia that we do have as an advantage, as a strength, not a weakness, um, I'm gonna
encourage you to sign up for free online workshop at marybarbera.com/workshop.
If you enjoyed this video, please leave me a comment.
Give me a thumbs up and share the video with others who might benefit.
And I hope to see you right here next week.