What is echolalia all about?

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What does this mean exactly? Does anyone here do it? I have read a few technical descriptions but wanted to hear a more "real life" example...

Thanks
Liz

I do express echolalia. I've never allowed myself to analyze it, bu tI do theorize it may at times be a stress reaction, and at others, a repetitious action. It is tricky to manage.

You wanted to hear a more "real life example..." Uhhmmmm...

^^This is an example of what echolalia means to me. I repeat the end of someone's sentence at times to give myself time to process what they want from me. I think it is also a way to better understand their language: when I hear a request or a statement come out of my own mouth, I process it differently (more thoroughly, with more reply options present) than when I simply listen to it and consider it in my head.

It also buys me a minute to think of something to say, as I am terrible with conversation and even answering questions at times.

This is the same reason I usually read aloud when I am reading something I really want to absorb. When you speak something, a different part of your brain activates than the part which processes the thought of the same 'something.' I'm told by my (lovely and quirky and down-to-earth) psychologist that people with neurological delays/issues/differences often do this to give the brain a heads-up on processing stuff.

Actually I think most people with true echolalia generally don't understand what they are saying. So they either repeat things back because they like the sound of it or it eventually gets them something.

Agreed. Repeating what someone has just said isn't that noticeable unless it's all you are saying to them. At least I'd like to think so.

Most people echo each other in many ways, either by repeating what someone has just said before moving on with the conversation or by putting it into their own context. Either way it's a hall of mirrors.

You may have seen this link. There's some examples of children.
http://www.specialed.us/autism/verbal/verbal11.html

I've heard of communicative and uncommunicative echolalia. It looks like there's immediate echolalia and delayed. And maybe another one I think I've heard of called mitigated.

Last edited by Jediscraps on 29 Jan 2011, 3:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have palilalia, which is the same thing but repeating myself, not other people. I get into a loop - if i don't have a new thought to replace it, I will repeat my last sentence or thought on loop, either out loud or in my head, until I replace it with something new.

Echolalia in people with little other communication is most likely an attempt to communicate.

I get into loops and repeat what I say over and over. Sometimes I repeat the last words of what somebody else says. I don't know why, it's an automatic reaction like I know I'm supposed to be responding to somebody but it's not my own words that come out.

I repeat myself a lot, and it might take two or three repetitions before I notice.

I was explaining this to my therapist yesterday, and then I started doing it.

I don't know if this is related or not, but I often feel the desire to imitate what someone said on tv or a game right after it was said.
Sometimes actual things people really said, too, but that's rarer.

That happens to me quite much.
If it's a thought, it stays in my head. Looping. It's annoying..
If it's a thing I actually said out loud I might repeat it again out loud. This I don't really mind.

God, so irritating. You know it's bad when you annoy yourself. :p

My son has this. He will repeat the last part of the sentence he just said under his breath, though not with all sentences. I never thought about the possibility he was giving himself time to collect his next thought.

btw -what a hard word to pronounce is palilalia,, my tongue gets into a jam on that one.

Do you need to speak it out load for it to be echolalia or can it just be in your head? I have the problem in my head. Usually it is just going on in the background and sometimes I realize that the words I have on loop were from quite some time ago and they were still there going round and round.

I don't know if I have this but I will repeat myself, often using the exact same words, as If I'm reinforcing a point. As soon as a catch it, I will stop. That might mean one or two repetitions of the same idea. I don't do it that often. My father has many fragments of AS (as do his two brothers) and he noted that he often repeats himself, which is true. He'll often make a point, walk out of the room, come back and make the exact same point. As if he's reinforcing his point or maybe he was just entertained by his previous phrasing.

The stranger thing that I do is that I have certain ritualized phrases that I say at times, usually when getting into the shower. I'll often think, "why am I saying that again?", "what does it mean"? I don't know if that would be palilalia or echolalia or fit any of it's variants.

I have these. Mostly quotes I've picked up elsewhere that are completely irrelevant. They'll often pop out when I start thinking out loud (and I usually think out loud), but like you they seem to happen most when I'm about to take a bath or shower.

One of my phrases is "not another one".