Opinions/experience needed please

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I was told to come post here regarding a question about my daughter. A few people who see my daughter all the time have started to mention her having autistic behaviours. I don't think she does because both my husband and I are aspergers/high functioning autism and she is totally opposite of us.
But what she does that concerns people is that she repeats phrases over and over and over, sometimes lasting up to a month before she lets go of the phrase. The majority of what comes out of her mouth is obvious movie quotes or things we've recently said and she will repeat them over and over during play or if you ask her a question, she will just repeat something you said or that she heard to answer the question; sometimes in context, sometimes not.

For example, my mom had her in the car one day when she ordered breakfast about a month ago. She said through the window, "two creams, two sugars, that's all. And NO butter!" and Layla still repeats it over and over. If you ask her what she wants to eat, she will say that or if she talks to someone on the phone, she will say it over and over until they hang up lol. She says it the exact way my mom said it. Before that, it was "ten dollars PLEASE", now it's either "wake up, it's 2 o'clock in the morning!" or "there's plenty more where that came from" or just random things she just heard.
Drives me insane sometimes but I think it's normal for a 3 year old. Opinions?

The reason I don't think she is autistic is because she is SO social and if we go out to eat, she will talk to every single person in the restaurant. Well she uses phrases that she uses all the time or from movies but they don't know that. She is very spirited and needs a lot of attention which is very different from us and makes me think she doesn't have autism.
She does create her own sentences every once in a while or at least things I don't remember saying.
She is my first child and I don't know a lot about symptoms of autism other than the symptoms of aspergers/high functioning autism that my husband and I have but I know it's different for anyone on the spectrum. So I haven't noticed any of the same things in her.

My husband and I do not compulsively repeat things we hear but my husband often repeats HIMSELF. For example, he will say something and then repeat the last word of the sentence under his breath a few times without realizing it.

My daughter learned to speak very early and I did also but she has always been very verbal.
I don't know that Im really "concerned" at this point but I am curious and feel like I should look into it because people are bringing it up...

Thank you for your time!

Forgive me for cutting to the chase, but I have to leave in a few minutes and I wanted to respond. Welcome to Wrong Planet!

IMHO (and it's just a humble opinion, not a formally educated one), I do not think that what you are describing is typical speech development for a 3 year old. It sounds like echolalia and scripting to me.

I also want to say that at 3 years old, I would have called my son hypersocial. He was fearless. Nothing at all like me. I actually secretly admired him for his ability to brazenly approach anyone and start interacting with them. I didn't suspect anything at all with him at that age, except perhaps sensory processing issues. He was also a very early talker. By 2.5 he sounded like your average kindergartener.

I also initially did not suspect anything with my daughter because she seemed happy and she loved to interact with her brother.

Sometimes, I think some parents--like me--focus too much on all of the things that "don't fit" the stereotype that we are familiar with and it causes us to overlook all of the symptoms that do fit. I'm not saying your child is on the spectrum, but I am saying that if other people are noticing things, it is worthwhile to consider it. Early Intervention can really help and I would suggest getting as much help as you can before the age of 5, because once you hit 5 it seems like you are at the mercy of the school district which means less help for most kids that I know.

Good luck.

That sounds like echolalia, which is a red flag for autism spectrum disorders. It is so hard with kids who have Asperger's to see some of the red flags when they are so young. I would suggest getting in touch with the early learning department at your local school district and request a screening. I'm not saying your child has Asperger's, but it's worth checking.

Here's a link to the red flags.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/signs.html

To me, the definition of "being social" doesn't mean wanting to interact with people, it means knowing how to.

The ebb and flow of conversation, eye contact, body language, social cues, all that stuff.

So the question then becomes, what is the age appropriate norm?

Thank you for the insight.

I have twins girls who are almost 3 and appear to be NT so far. They will occasionally get tickled by a phrase and repeat it a few times over the course of a week. It is nowhere near the intensity and duration of the echolailia that you are describing. I would say it warrants at least a speech/language evaluation, and it would probably be smart to have a developmental expert do a thorough evaluation.

I agree that age 3 is too young for a formal diagnosis; I even feel hesitant to say she "has something". It does help me a lot to have some insight from others.
Is echolalia the name of a condition or is it the name of a behaviour?
What I mean is, is echolalia a neurotypical behaviour that can vary in severity (an idiosyncrasy) or does it only exist in autists?

My understanding is that like so many of the "red flags" you can see some echolalia is NT very young children, but is more pronounced in kids who are on the spectrum and the stages last longer.

With my son it was a substantial part of his communication when he was your son's age and it took him awhile to develop a substantial amount of original speech. He had such a good memory for things we had said that I did not quite realize the extent of echolalia at the time. He would plug the statements in pretty appropriately sometimes and I thought it was original speech. I could tell the original speech later on when it was not so grammatically perfect.

I would get your child tested, but that is not the same as saying I think he is autistic. I am not a professional and there are a lot of other things in the tests.

I will say that outgoing does not equal socially skilled. I used to go around the house saying "hi," until it annoyed the heck out of my dad and he yelled at me. It was a substitute for conversation I just could not make, I think. At your son's age I was very outgoing, too.

How is your son with sensory issues?

I agree with many of the above posters in that being social doesn't always mean that "wanting to" and "being able to" are mutually exclusive. My son has always been a very social kid. From a very young age, he's always been really keen to get involved and make friends, but at the same time he was unable to take the hint when a certain kid did NOT want to to play. He'd just follow this boy around, completely oblivious to the fact that the boy didn't want to play. As a mum, it broke my heart to watch this -- but it's also a difficult thing to teach.
Sometimes wanting to be social can be present, but the social skills (or lack of them) hinder this.

when you described the repeating phrases, I can only think of my boy when he was little. We used to call him a little parrot because he repeated EVERYTHING. For the longest time, I put it down to the fact that all kids repeat/parrot words -- it's how they learn to speak. But looking back on it, my son's parroting was way more over the top than most. It was almost obsessive, and it would often last for weeks before he found something else to move onto. He's now 10 and doesn't do it as often, but it does still happen.

I'm not at all saying that I think what you've described means your child has autism/aspergers --- but that it also may be worth investigating further.

ASDMommyASDKid, I'm not sure I know what you mean by sensory issues. Can you give examples or a link?

If you and your husband are aspies, you might instinctively recognize sensory issues that bother her and make accomodations without evening realizing you are doing so. It can be hard for a parent to know what reactions are normal/unusual at age 3.

From http://sensorysmarts.com/signs_of_spd.html

Zette gave a good list above. By sensory issues I mean anything relating to difficulties with tastes, smells, textures and noises, but it also refers to things like balance issues, constantly needing to jump around or having trouble feeling himself in space.

Zette's list is much more complete.

Thank you. Well I guess as far as clothes go, she doesn't like them. It takes about an hour to get a shirt and pants on her when we go out if I'm patient about it. It rarely goes peacefully. She doesn't wear clothes at home at all but she likes to wear socks on her hands.
She doesn't like to be wet or messy. If a spot of food or water gets on her clothes while we are out, she gets very upset and wants to take her clothes off immediately. I just bring a few changes of clothes and a bib whenever we go somewhere. She is pretty good about keeping her clothes on in public otherwise. She also screams and runs when I get out the toothbrush or hairbrush and that is always a battle.
She hates baths and screams and cries through them so I usually only bathe her when she's very dirty and I will ask her to clean herself with a damp cloth the rest of the time.
She is very high energy and spirited. She doesn't sit still and speaks very loudly. She doesn't have any problems with hearing or seeing.
She doesn't seem to have any issues with smell or taste. She is like her dad and likes to try all kinds of foods. I would rather eat the same things for every meal every day lol.
She is very emotionally sensitive to little things.
I've considered all of these things mostly age appropriate normal, otherwise for the high energy and sensitivity, I just consider her spirited.
What do you all think?

My 4yo daughter is really chatty and confident, she will talk to anyone and talks like a grow up. However a lot of what she says is a direct quote from TV, stories or other people! She has AS. I dont think it is normal as I dont know any other child that does it to that extent. I think you need a certain type of brain to get things "stuck" like that, my Aspie husband is tormented by tunes going round his head all the time, Im NT and I just dont have that, at least not to that extreme!

My daughter will talk to complete strangers all the time, I have to allow time for this when we are out as she will want to ask people if she can stroke their dogs then get chatting and asking if they have kids etc, like shes an adult lol! But all of that confidence and chattyness is learnt, AS girls copy. Often they will have one good "mother hen" friend who will unknowingly guide them socially.

I dont remember a time when my little girl didnt speak! She talked early and ALL THE TIME! Even in her sleep she talks!! I have been told she cant have AS because she is so chatty and confident but if you listen closely its all learnt and she talks over people, doesnt know when to talk in a 2 way conversation, doesnt see when people are bored or not listening. She talks to herself and her toys too.

Im not saying your daughter has autistic tendancies, although it seems likely if both her parents have an ASD. Could be worth getting it checked out though Also she is only 3, this is around the age people start to notice ASDs and if she does have something it will become more apparent as she gets older. Its only just in the last 2 years that we had started to look into it with our 4yo (soon to be 5). What can seem normal for a 3yo starts to look odd at 4 or 5 when they are still talking at you rather than listening and responding appropriately.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do and feel free to pop into the forum for a nose if theres anything else that concerns you, even if you dont think she has an ASD you are still welcome!