It discusses types of echolalia, their diagnosis, and echolalia treatment options.
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What Is Echolalia?
Echolalia describes the repetition of language thats heard.
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It isnt a one-off episode or the occasional quote to make a specific point.
Its an oft-repeated behavior that may seem meaningless but is believed to have several purposes.
Types of Echolalia
Echolalia is categorized in multiple ways.
Its common for people who use echolalia to mislabel pronouns.
For example, they may say, You want to watch cartoons?
as a way to indicate they want cartoons themselves.
This can affect the ability to make and communicate decisions.
Echolalia and ADHD
Children with ADHD can experience language delays.
While this may not result in echolalia, language delays are one cause of echolalia.
Echolalia is not common in children with ADHD, but it can occur.
One way it presents in people with ADHD is as a stim (self-stimulation behavior).
An autistic person may stim for several hours at a time.
They may includebrain imaging testslikecomputed tomography(CT scans) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
They also may order blood tests.
Treatment
Trying to immediately extinguish echolalia is not often advised, as it serves a purpose.
Treatment usually involves building communication skills that gradually replace the echolalia.
Speech Therapy
Treatment for echolalia usually involves a speech therapist.
Aspeech therapistcan also look for and address other language difficulties that may or may not be related to echolalia.
Parents or guardians can help build communication skills by gently redirecting and correcting when echolalia occurs.
For example, if the child says, Hold you?
you might model the correct sentence, Will you hold me?
and have the child repeat it back to you before you pick them up.
After some practice, you might expand upon it.
If the child indicates they want juice by saying, Do you want juice?
try responding, No, I dont want juice, but you do.
Say, I want juice.
Other Conditions
Echolalia is associated with autism traits.
Its uncommon after childhood, but autistic adults may use echolalia just as autistic children do.
Echolalia is part of early language development, but usually stops by age 3.
Echolalia is a common autism trait but also can occur with ADHD.
Some people with ADHD use echolalia as a stimming behavior to self-stimulate or self-soothe.
Music therapy also is a treatment option to discuss with your healthcare provider.
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