Echoes of Language Development: 7 Facts About Echolalia for SLPs

It’s no secret that verbal repetition and imitation are important parts of early speech and language acquisition. Speech and language input create a framework for children to understand their environment, say first words, learn new vocabulary and exercise increasingly complex functions of communication. As children hear language around them, they begin to assign meaning, repeat words and eventually use language in novel ways to become independent communicators. Echolalia, a form of verbal imitation, is one of the most common characteristics of communication in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although previously seen by some as maladaptive behavior, an increasing body of evidence led most experts to recognize echolalia as a bridge to meaningful, self-generated speech with communicative intent. As speech-language pathologists, we play a part in helping family members and fellow professionals understand the important role echolalia plays in language development and communication of people with ASD. Here are seven important facts about echolalia for SLPs to know and share: Echolalia represents a gestalt language-processing style. This means children first assign a single unit of meaning to longer segments of spoken language. What a child initially perceives as “comesitdownatthetable” may simply mean “table” to them, for example. Gradually, the child can isolate smaller and smaller parts from the original phrase and use individual words and grammatical stru...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Autism Spectrum Disorder echolalia Language Disorders Source Type: blogs