Echolalia: What Is It And How To Deal With It?

Have you ever heard of echolalia? It is a language disorder about which very little is known. In this case, the little one who suffers from it tends to involuntarily repeat a word or phrase uttered by a third party.

This disorder in the child’s speech occurs in an echo mode and is characterized by semiautomatic and compulsive repetition. Likewise, these minors often even imitate the original intonation of the interlocutor. Now, it is worth wondering how to act in front of it. Discover it here!

Types of echolalia

There are several types of echolalia. It is possible to discern different classifications according to the aspect that is considered. Thus, specialists distinguish the typology of this language disturbance after attending to the time that elapses between the original emission and the echo, the form of the repetition and its communicative intention.

Classification based on the time it takes for the echo to propagate

• Immediate echolalia. The repetition of the original broadcasts occurs when they have just been produced.
• Delayed echolalia. The echo takes place after a certain period of time has passed. It can be minutes, hours, and even entire weeks.

According to your communicational intention

• Eco functional. In this case, the child manifests a communicative or informative intention.
• Echo not functional. This type of echolalia lacks a communicational purpose. Therefore, it is considered self-stimulating.

Typology based on the comparison of the form of the original phrase and the echo

• Exact echo. The original and the repeated model are completely identical and the same.
• Reduced echo. Only a fraction of the primary version is faithfully reproduced. It is usually the last part.
• Echo expanded. In this case, although certain modifications are introduced, no modifications are perceived in the overall structure of the enunciation.
• Echo mitigated. Here alterations of the model proposition take place. This denotes creative skills to rearrange the general structure.

How to treat echolalia?

However, the complexity of this type of childhood disorder lies in the treatment. Well, it is reduced to the type of pathology in question. For this, it is essential to establish the permanent classification to determine the way to intervene.

Treatment for Functional Delayed Echolalia

The idea of ​​this intervention is to take advantage of the delayed echo, as long as it has some communicative functionality. Thus, the ultimate goal is to provide verbal models that help the child to fulfill their purposes.

Of course, the alternative offered to the minor must be adjusted to the level of his / her development. At the same time, it is sought that the alternative to echo supposes a greater communicative or informative precision. The idea is then to maximize all emission.

The work proposes a progressive work with high doses of patience. At each stage, the level of complexity of the propositions begins to increase. Once the child achieves the task in the exercise, an action is enabled that works as a reaction to his correctly elaborated proposition.

 Intervention in immediate echolalia

In this type of work, the therapist will try to subject the Echolalia to a series of discriminative stimuli. Well, the idea is that the child understands, detects and determines on what occasions it is relevant to allow this involuntary emission.

For this, it is vital that the child learns to distinguish what should be repeated from what is meaningless. This is how the little one is taught to repeat only when expressly requested. In this case, specialists may well use different working methods.

Procedure in non-functional echolalia

Here there is a conflict. Since it is a non-functional disorder, it implies a certain impediment in linguistic development. Consequently, it becomes a true communicational obstacle for the creature that suffers from it.

Therefore, the specialist will try in this case to completely eliminate the infantile echolalia. For these purposes, one of the most effective strategies involves explaining to the child that these types of echoes are not suitable in specific contexts.

However, in this type of pathology, a series of behavioral techniques can be used, which can be multiple. From this perspective, self-registration, reinforcement of incompatible behaviors, time out, among many others, are presented.