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Echolalia?

ally81698ally81698 member
in Special Needs
So Danica has been doing this for a few weeks now and I'm starting to get concerned.  A little background - Danica has some social anxiety but it's mostly around children and babies younger than her.  She is shy at first, unless she knows and trusts you - then she is extremely friendly, silly and funny.  She's also very attached to me and still goes through short periods of separation anxiety. I started to notice her repeating phrases a few weeks ago.  My best friend came over with her son, who is 11 months.  He's crawling everywhere, making baby sounds, etc. which makes Danica extremely uncomfortable.  She was asking to go in every room where he wasn't, wouldn't let me leave her side, didn't talk, eat, drink or move the whole time.  When he came crawling toward her, she repeated about 10 times in a row "Beavis is kissing Mommy, Beavis is kissing Mommy" (Beavis is our dog...I know, I know... and he was at the groomer, not even home).  I thought, hmmm, weird. Then I noticed wherever we are out (food shopping, my in-laws BBQ, stores, etc), as soon as someone notices her or talks to her, she points to me and says "this is mommy" pauses and then says "I don't see daddy" (or if DH is there, she points us both out and says "this is mommy, this is daddy, I don't see Ed (her uncle)".  However, she seems like she's being silly when she does this, it's almost like a game, but it's still repeating a phrase and it happens every time. Then, one more example, going to hippotherapy yesterday she said "I'm gonna go see Chubby" (her horse) like 5 times, and then I said "yes, you are" and she said "with Mommy?" (because I normally stay behind in order for her to pay attention to the PTs) and I said "ok, I'll go to Chubby with you" and then she kept repeating "I'm gonna go see Chubby.  With mommy?" about 10 times. Last one..., she came into our room in the middle of night and repeated "Im gonna lay down with Mommy?" about 7 times (even after she was laying with us). So what do you think?  Has anyone else experienced this?  Is this just normal toddler behavior?  Or maybe some sort of anxiety issue?  Is this considered echolalia?  Im just really hoping this isn' the start of something new!  Thanks for reading!
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Re: Echolalia?

  • typesettypeset member
    This doesn't seem like echolalia so much as vocal stereotypy. These are her words and not something she's heard before, right? She either likes the way these phrases sound, is getting stuck because she doesn't know what else to say or what to say next, or some combination of those. Echolalia would be a verbatim recitation of something she just heard (immediate echolalia) or heard in the past (delayed echolalia). 

    When the kiddo gets stuck, we acknowledge that we hear him. He then gets a reminder that he needs to say something else or a prompt if he keeps going. For example: 
    "Going on the train going on the train going on the train--"
    "Where are you going?"
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    11/10/10 The Kid
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  • Ginlyn0Ginlyn0 member
    DS does this as well. I asked a similar question a while back and Auntie said that it could be palilalia which is sort of an echo of ones own words from what I have read.
    DD(14),SD(13),SS(11),SS(9),DS(3)

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  • d.fd.f member
    DS does the same thing. His school SLP called it perservation. Repeating it back to him sometimes breaks him out of the Loop, just acknowledging him does not. His private SLP thinks it might be a product of anxiety. It has recently picked back up and we're going through some transitions (kindergarten starts Monday, My SiL and nieces just moved near us)

    DS 09/2008

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  • typesettypeset member
    And now I'm learning the difference between stereotypy and perseveration.
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    11/10/10 The Kid
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