Any other echolalians out there?

Post Reply New Topic

I recently found out I have echolalia after years of not knowing why I repeat phrases other people say or to myself over and over again!! I thought it was weird but seems rather normal for spectrumites such as myself.

I repeat conversations in my head. And I repeat what people say to me back to them.

It comes and goes. Of late I can at least delay it until I'm out of earshot. Used to be I'd repeat myself under my breath after most sentences. Maybe I was checking for errors?

Yes, a little. The impulse to repeat things can be suppressed in public, though in private I happily echo things just as I hear them, tone-of-voice and all, with very little attention paid to meaning. It's a quirk of mine--it doesn't interfere with communication. I can make my own sentences whenever I like (given that I'm not completely overloaded). I just kind of tend to echo things back sometimes.

The odd thing is that this is a relatively recent thing--the past five years or so. I know that as a very young child I used to repeat things over and over, but by the time I was ten years old or so, I had little to no echolalia (I did memorize and recite things, including songs, but there wasn't any of the impulsive echoing). Now, I memorize-and-recite less often and echo more. I don't know why. I guess the brain changes over time. It's not a change that scares me, so I won't concern myself with it.

Sometimes, I repeat myself several times, right after I've said something.
I also uncontrollably copy people in....well, I'm not good with words..let me give you an example;
In mainstream school, there was this girl who thought it was clever to answer the register in a high pitched voice, and after a few weeks, I uncontrollably started copping her(I did it every registration, in that class, until I left the school). The same goes for repeating peoples actual words (as well as my own), not just pitch. I also have the tendency to uncontrollably repeat others actions (echopraxia), as well as my own (sometimes right after they've done it, or maybe even years later, or both).
So I hope you see that, I'm trying to say, when I'm in a certain situation, I cannot help copping what someone-else did in the past.

Does that all make sense? :S

I recently had cause to speak to my daughter's swimming instructor, to tell her that she was being assessed for autism. As I spoke, she repeated lots of words back to me, especially the last word of each sentence. This, I believe, was echolalia. There was no room in the conversation for her own thoughts and words and I was left wondering what she'd actually understood about what I'd just told her. It was weird that I was telling her that my daughter had a social communication difficulty, when I was wondering if this woman actually had a much more severe difficulty than my daughter. Probably she understood exactly what I was talking about, but for me not to get any original feedback from her meant I was left guessing. I wonder if those with echolalia often cause others to be bemused.

This tends to happen to me at work, when a coworker or customer is talking to me a whole bunch and my brain stops processing what they are saying so it sounds like gibberish. I repeat the syllables in an attempt to understand what was being said. Which usually does not occur, but I fake understanding.

I remember doing it when I was very young, like 5 years old... I stopped when I started school, when I realized other people found it weird. I thought I was simply imitating my older brother who was doing it all the time... Maybe it was the case, but now that I'm wondering if I might be an asperger too, I'm not so sure...

I repeat myself, I repeat others, I repeat all the time....it's just subtle so people don't realize it...I don't think.

My bad echolalia lasted until I was about 12.

My brother told me for years I used to whisper the last few words of the sentence I just spoke. To this day I have never had any idea or proof that I actually did it but I was surprised to see its yet another Aspie trait so he actually might have been telling the truth for once. The only time I've actually heard echolalia in real life was a specialist Dr. He told me something and as I was leaving he was repeating it again to himself very quietly. I thought something was wrong with him because he was a very intelligent man.

Funny thing is recently I repeat things to myself in foreign languages like Chinese. "da Jia hao... laoshi hao"..dong bu dong... dong.. It is a phrase I learned in Mandarine class and even after class is over with I rehearse it to myself I like saying it at times.

I'm more of a mimic, don't think it's the same thing.

I'll repeat noises more than human speech phrases. Birds, various animals, noises, alarm buzzes, etc.