Echolalia

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Now that I've discovered aspergers syndrome and done some reading in to it, I've discovered that I've also have a mild problem with echolalia. At work and elsewhere in a casual situation, someone would say something, and I would spontaneously repeat what they had just said. I would then get a curt response of "Shut up Scott!" Other times I've managed to catch myself before I've done it and spared myself embarrasment.

Anyone else do this?

Now that I've discovered aspergers syndrome and done some reading in to it, I've discovered....

Sorry, I just had to do that. But seriously, Yes, I do it often. Most often it occurs when I am concentrating on something else or if they ask me a simple question like, "Did you go to work today?" The worst is that sometimes people try to get my attention by repeating my name, like they are trying to wake me up, then I start chanting my own name, it is very embarassing.

Yes, I sure do echolalia. It's hard to tell if I do it any more or any less than I used to; probably about the same.

I almost took that the wrong way. LOL It took about a minute for your joke to click in my head. LOL

Echolalia can be internal aswell, such as when you hear the phrase its repeated in your mind. I have that. It can be annoying cos it can repeat a lot, especially under stress.

I also get the internal echolalia. Often after finishing a conversation, or even just thinking to myself, sometimes I will keep hearing the last few phrases in my mind. Sometimes it just keeps repeating and I don't even notice until minutes afterwards.

No, I have no echolalia, external, internal, or otherwise. But when I hear or read a phrase that I "like", there is no power that would remove it from my head. Today it is "echolalia, echolalia, no, I have no echolalia; echolalia, echolalia, no, I have no echolalia; echolalia,...". God, deliver me from this loop! I hope I won't start chanting it aloud. LOL!

Update: I have just read an article "Echolalia and Autism" [clickable] and changed my mind. Apparently I do plenty of echolalia, external, internal and otherwise. Repeating once-heard phrase is nothing else as a noninteractive nonfocused delayed echolalia, according to Functional categories of delayed echolalia (Prizant, 1983).
I also do immediate echolalia - some examples:

1. "Magic, what's the password for user Smith?" - "Hmm... What's the password? What's the password? Hmm..." (checking in the database). This is an interactive turn-taking immediate echolalia - Functional categories of immediate echolalia (Prizant & Duchan, 1981).

2. When bi-lingual car wash machine issues an order "Mueva su vehículo, por favor", I always repeat it with great delight - noninteractive rehearsal immediate echolalia (eh, not really, rather nonfocused echolalia - I disobey the order and don't move my car right away).

3. Plenty of other cases.

Fortunately none of those constitutes a clinical impairment of any sort . Maybe I look strange shouting in full voice "Mueva su vehículo, por favor!", but, hey, why should I refuse myself a moment of pure joy!

More links:
http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/communication/echolaliImmed.html
http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/communication/echolalidelay.html

Last edited by magic on 27 Jul 2004, 5:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.

I do not have external excholalia except when I am stressed or when I am asked a unexpected question - in that case, I am likely to have it.
But I have internal echolalia. When I hear a sentence, in some situations, I may repeat it within my mind several times. It is the case when I like the sentence, but it can happen with sentences that I do not particularly like.
I did not realize it until I paid attention.

Loy

Let me talk seriously for a change. When someone unexpectedly asks you a question, are you able to get it? I need to be in the "listening mode" to comprehend speech, so if someone talks to me when I am not prepared, I hear first few words as gibberish. "What did you say?" - my most common phrase.

I understand that magic, about listening mode. I have said at home that if something is very important it should be written down, as I can appear to be listening sometimes, but really far away.....

Amy,
Hmmm... I don't think this is exactly what I had in mind. "Listening mode" is a conscious activity in which I actively follow words spoken by another person (it is best described as "saying words together with the speaker", although it can also be asynchronous, i.e. with delay). When someone starts talking to me unexpectedly, I attempt to switch to "listening mode" as fast as possible, but it usually takes about 2 seconds. During this time I hear the sound, but can't make sense of it. If the person stops talking after a few words, I can sometimes replay the raw soundwave from memory and comprehend it "asynchronously", but usually this is not the case.

[Scott, I seem to have unintentionally hijacked your thread, I apologize for that.]

I don't know if it's exactly a "listening mode" for me, but I do have the same problem of not being able to comprehend words when I am not prepared for them. For me, it's almost like my brain goes into shock for a few seconds, I then say "What?" and sometimes, even as I am saying "What?" I will comprehend what the other person said. It's like the message is delayed in getting decrypted from my ears into my brain.

Strangely enough, I have a very difficult time doing anything involving words (like writing, reading, or speaking) when I am listening to music with strong lyrics, or when people are talking in the background. I guess this might be what you mean when you say that you have to "switch modes" -I can either have input or output, but not both at once. Also, it's limited to one mode of input or one mode of output at once, as well.

Wow... I didn't even realise I did the repeat or listening mode things until I read this.... then I realised that that's exactly what I do. Only, I repeat a phrase multiple times, aloud, while singing it to whatever's on the radio. and I get internal echolalia so bad that I can't tell what's actually being said to me and what's a memory sometimes.... I always thought echolalia was just the whole repeating bits of phrases as a child thing, which I'm not sure if I did. I didn't realise it applied for your entire life... wow.

External echolalia I have sometimes, but only once in a while will I flat out start repeating something someone said right after he/she says it. On the other hand, I have almost constant internal echolalia and it can be very troublesome. Sometimes I speak my internal echolalia and nobody has any idea what I'm talking about.

echolalia....im going to be saying that all day now!

I would quote stuff from other posts on here but Id be quoting from most of them! Its all so familiar!

When I first hear a word or phrase I start using it constantly, like every other sentence. I can repeat whole conversations (drives my friends nuts that one) that I've had in the last week or so. I repeat what people are saying until it registers- sometimes out loud and sometimes in my head.

Does typing echolalia exist? If Im thinking about something and Im writing/typing about something else I'll end up writing about what Im thinking about. Or if someone speaks to me I'll either write what they are saying or my reply as I say it.....very annoying.

I thought that echolalia is something every person with aspergers and autism had in early childhood, and that it is somehow outgrown as they either get older, or learn to speak/talk properly. I had it from I think, two up to five or six years old. I never knew some adults still do that, I thought it was because children with autism did it because they were learning how to speak in full sentences. Anyway I thought echolalia was something that went away eventually as we got older.




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