All Natural Mommies

Posts Tagged ‘echolalia’

For the past few months my toddler (will be three in Nov) has repeated himself over and over and over. Not all of the time of course, but just whenever it tickles his fancy. He repeatedly asks what, or says things that excite him over and over again – like when we take his uncle (a 15 year old) to harescramble races he repeatedly says I’m going to take Nate to a raaaccceeeee.” I discovered that I am not the only mom out there with this problem and located a fantastic article here: http://littlechildren.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/echolalia/

It appears that constant repeating has a term – echolalia. This article is definately a must read and not only gave me peace of mind, but also some things to look for and perhaps some things to consider before calling my pediatrician. Here are some snippets (thanks to the other blogger)

Here’s a brief list of ok reasons why toddlers repeat:

• Sometimes it is the easiest thing to do, rather than think of novel things to say.
• Sometimes they are just bored, stressed, afraid, or want to make conversation and don’t know how.
• Sometimes they are just practicing things they know.
• Sometimes they are not listening to your response; their mouth is on, but their ears aren’t
• Sometimes they don’t understand your response, and so they ask again.
• Sometimes they haven’t totally mastered a concept yet, even though it seems they have.
• Sometimes what you said is pleasing to the ear, or pleasing to say.
• Sometimes they are just mimicking you the way they would mimic other things you do.  Two-year olds especially learn by memorizing and mimicking.
• Often times they haven’t learned the appropriate response. They need a storehouse of things to say before they can actually initiate something intelligent, and they need to hear you model first person speech so they can mimic. Don’t be afraid to put words in your toddler’s mouth when you suspect they don’t know what to say. Even if you’re wrong, they’ll soon be able to correct you or at least say, “No” which is good.
• Sometimes they are thinking out loud. They repeat something over and over because they’re verbalizing their thoughts.  They may repeat until they make a decision, at which point they’ll say what that decision is, or answer their own question.
• Sometimes they haven’t mastered pronoun reversal yet, so it sounds like they are echoing you but are really asking reflexively. (i.e. they mean “What do I want?” instead of “What do you want?”) At some point, they will learn to change pronouns and you see they are simply thinking aloud, or asking themselves. I prompted my toddlers by saying, “I want…” and letting them fill in the blank.
• Many times the reactions they get when they say things make it rewarding to keep repeating, even if they don’t need to. (i.e. most toddlers crave the great attention they get when they yell, “NO!” or when they ask academic questions, like “What letter is this?” and the busy parent suddenly takes interest to answer.)