Echolalia

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(Sorry if this has already been a topic.)

I thought echolalia was a very strange thing when I first heard of it, and certainly wasn't something I do. Until I read that it doesn't have to be out loud -- that repeating your own or someone else's last words in your head over and over is a form of echolalia.

Annnnnd I do that. Anybody else?

With me, it just plays in my head like how a song gets stuck. I'll usually divide whatever I'm thinking of -- often parsed down to a single word -- down into letters, and sort of tap it out with my fingers and try to make it come out evenly (ending on an end or index finger). Like the word "computer" -- I'd use my index finger for c, middle for o, ring for m, pinkie for p, ring for u, and so on until it ends up at my thumb. Rinse and repeat. It's a pretty unconscious habit, and with tricky words I'll play around with it for a while to make it "even." I like nine-letter words; they work really well.

With sentences or phrases, I'll just repeat them over and over in my head as I go merrily along. It doesn't happen in the middle of conversations 'cause I'm too busy figuring out what I'm supposed to say next. If it's something I said, I imagine it with all sorts of intonations and whatnot. I never really realized this was a "thing," but so it is with most Aspie-type traits.

(I'm not officially dx-ed, so take this with a grain of salt. It's always possible that I'm just individually crazy.)

I sometimes repeat what others say...out loud.

For me it's a way to "buy time" for my mind to put the words together to form a feasible sentence. Either that or it's just plain involuntary.

most speech am have is made up of echolalia and palilalia.
it's common on all ends of the autism spectrum.

Interesting little game you have there, madhouse. I often (say, 200 times a day-ish) do a similar thing with "alternate capitalizations." I will see a word, then somehow determine, through following certain arbitrary rules, the "best" (completely subjective) way to SpRiNklE AnNoYiNG CaPitALiZAtiON tHrOuGhOUt.

Yeah, even I think that this is pretty weird. Thing is, I'm on the internet ALOT, and it bothers me as much as the next guy when someone starts typing that way, just for me, it's because they are clearly doing it wrong!

I also get some totally unrelated echolalia, though it doesn't transfer to thought at all. It's almost a reflex, I'll "play back" to refresh if I wasn't paying attention, or repeat to indicate understanding when I have nothing else to say.

Sometimes Ill repeat a certain word that someone says out loud when I mean to sound exasperated but I sound like I dont know what the word is (even though I do). So the person ends up defining it for me and I just say whatever.

Sometimes I repeat the last word my mom says. I do have echolalia. Actually I'm having palilalia right now. I can't stop repeating what I'm saying right now. I'm having a strange stim/meltdown going on right now.

I do this. I don't repeat what other people have said to me, but I often repeat what I last said, under my breath - especially if my last comment was inappropriate and embarassing.

I do it quite a lot...

I've noticed that I will at times repeat the last few words of what someone said to me involuntarily. Didn't know that was echolia was until I found out about it.

Can palilalia or echolalilia be only in one's head, not spoken? I will often repeat what someone said in my mind, but not say it out loud. Or I will say random words or phrases, or portions of what I said in past conversations, over and over and over in my mind, still silently.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. That's exactly what I do.

I started doing the finger thing recently. I don't remember how it came about, though I usually do it with longer phrases (especially the those that get stuck in my head) using syllables or words themselves.

Sweet, I'm not the only one!

I do, though usually it will be an entire conversation. ITs only just one phrase if the person particually ticked me off

I do too (echolalia and palilalia). But my echolalia and palilalia were more severe when I was small.

When I asked if echolalia had to be out loud or if it was something that could be in one's head, everyone said it had to be done verbally. I don't know for sure. What I do know is stuff gets stuck in my head. It can be lyrics from a song (just a couple words of it), something someone says, something from a commercial or - the worst - a phone number from a TV commercial. Sequential numbers spoken aloud will stick and repeat in my head for months or even years. When I was a kid my mother would say "remember this number" and say it, and when asked, I could produce it for days afterward because it would still be bouncing around in there. 936 936 936 936 etc.

I repeat things under my breath all of the time. If there is more than one thing going on at a time, or more than just me receiving direction, I will often wind up doing whatever the last person was told to do if I do not repeat it over and over. Sometimes I will catch myself and I will just whisper it, and sometimes I'll write it over and over with my big toe or finger. I do it to keep up with conversation as well, but it often makes it worse because I become too focused on the word to hear what they are saying, lol.