Got Echolalia?
The importance of echolalia to language acquisition cannot be overemphasized. It is important to realize that echolalia is not a behavior to be extinguished, but is actually an atypical phase of language development for children on the spectrum. Dr. Barry Prizant has done extensive clinical research on echolalia and the language learning style of children on the spectrum.
In looking at a developmental framework for understanding communication and language impairments in autism, we must consider the characteristics of language and communicative behavior in ASD as a difference in cognitive and language style as it contrasts to typically developing children.
Regarding these differences in language learning styles for acquisition of communication skills we see a gestalt versus analytic style. A Gestalt language style emphasizes multiword utterances that are memorized and produced as single units or chunks, with little analysis of their internal linguistic structure and with little or no comprehension of the utterances themselves. Analytic forms, on the other hand are generated on the basis of application of previously acquired linguistic rules and greater comprehension of constituent structure of the specific meanings encoded by those utterances and their component parts.
These two different forms of language have been noted to be used by some typically developing children as well and appear to be of great relevance to understanding language acquisition strategies in populations with various disabilities.
Prizant postulated that children with autism rely on a gestalt strategy in early language learning by repeating unanalyzed chunks or multiword units of speech and subsequently breaking down these units into meaningful segments. Repetition or language “chunks” may occur immediately, as in the case of immediate echolalia; or later, as in the case of delayed echolalia. It appears that most verbal individuals with autism rely on the gestalt style of language acquisition in that early utterances are typically rigidly echolalic and early communicative functions expressed through speech tend to be served by immediate and delayed echolalia. As a cognitive style it tends to be a relatively inflexible mode of information processing which results in memorization of unanalyzed “chunks” of information including speech as well as visual stimulus input. In comparison, a more analytic style allows for the decoding of the specific meanings of the component parts of a sequence in relation to each other. This is based on the extraction of the meaning, or gist, or experiences by integrating the relevant pieces of information with reference to previous experiences and not by simply storing information to be later reproduced in an identical fashion.
Prizant indicated that for many verbal children with autism, language acquisition progresses from the predominant use of echolalia with little evidence of comprehension or communicative intent to the use of echolalia for a variety of communicative functions, later followed by a decrease in echolalia co-occurring with an increase in creative, spontaneously generated utterances. Pronoun reversals, stereotypic utterances, and insistence on certain verbal routines, all common characteristics of language use of verbal individuals, may also suggest a gestalt strategy in acquisition and use.
The prevalence of gestalt forms can thus be conceptualized as variation at the extreme end of the typical continuum, which apparently corresponds with differences in cognitive style.
What all this means for parents of children with ASD is that echolalia can be viewed as a positive indicator. Speech Pathologists with expertise in working with children on the spectrum will utilize echolalia as part of the therapeutic process. The goal of this facilitation is to gently nudge the child along the developmental pathway, ideally, with the objective of obtaining greater linguistic comprehension, and more spontaneous, meaningful utterances.
Reference
Autism Spectrum Disorders A Transactional Developmental Perspective, Wetherby & Prizant, Brookes Publishing 2000