Let’s talk about echolalia.
If you’ve ever been in an IEP meeting or read a clinical report and seen this word, I want you to understand what it means and why it’s not a bad thing.
Echolalia refers to when someone repeats the words or phrases spoken by others. But before we dive deeper, take a moment to think about times when you repeat words, either to yourself or to someone else.
Have you ever said a name or phone number out loud a few times to help remember it?
Have you ever been at the hardware store and repeated back what the cashier said because you weren’t sure what a certain item was?
Have you ever been lost in thought, caught only the last few words someone said, and repeated them to help yourself process before answering?
That’s echolalia. It’s not exclusive to autistic people; it's a human behavior. Repeating what we hear helps us process language.
For many autistic individuals, echolalia is a common and meaningful strategy used to process language and the overwhelming sensory input they receive from their environments.
Echolalia is typically categorized into two types: immediate and delayed.
Immediate echolalia is when words or phrases are repeated right after they’re heard. If you’ve ever seen The Middle, the youngest son, Brick, often echoes what others say, or even repeats himself, immediately after speaking.
Delayed echolalia is when words or phrases are repeated hours, days, or even weeks later. A child might recite lines from a TV show, a favorite movie, or a past conversation long after they heard it.
Both types are strategies for processing and building language.
From a therapy standpoint, echolalia gives me valuable insight into where to begin and how to adjust my approach to meet a child where they are.
If a student is not only repeating familiar phrases but also echoing new ones I’ve introduced, that tells me they’re ready for more complex language work. But if I’m modeling language and all I’m getting is silence, that’s a cue for me to scale back and go back to basics.
Think of a child’s language system as a mental Rolodex. Echolalia is how they flip through it, trying to find the right words or phrases that match the moment. It’s resourceful, not random.
Echolalia is often misunderstood as “just parroting” or as a sign that a child doesn’t understand what’s being said.
But in many cases, children who use echolalia are actually showing us that they’re processing language in their own way, that they’re trying to engage, communicate, or self-regulate, and/or that they’re building connections between words and meaning
We need to be careful not to view echolalia as a behavior to “fix,” but rather as communication to understand.
If your child repeats everything they hear, remember that echolalia is not a delay; it’s a different path to language development. And it can tell us a lot, if we’re willing to listen closely.
Instead of asking, “How do I stop this?”
Ask, “What are they trying to tell me?”
Because all language, whether original, repeated, immediate, or delayed, is worth hearing.
~Chloe