Echolalia: what is it, causes, types and treatment

There are various alterations related to language. Verbal stereotypes often occur in pathologies such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, aphasias and dementias, among others. One of the most common verbal stereotypies is echolalia. Are you interested in knowing what it is about? Find out in this Psychology-Online article, in which we will delve into the echolalia: what is it, causes, types and treatment. Next, we talk about echolalia in children and adults to offer a global picture of this language alteration.

Index

1. What is echolalia
2. Causes of echolalia
3. Types of echolalia
4. Treatment for echolalia

The echolalia is an iterative language disorder in which there is a irrelevant and persistent repetition of the last words or phrases that have been heard by the subject, as an echo. Sometimes, the repetitions are exact, even going so far as to mimic the intonation. A speech with echolalia is usually accompanied by a monotonous, mechanical language with the same tone and rhythm of voice.

To understand the causes of this iterative language disorder, it must be understood that echolalia is often part of the developmental development of children. In other words, many children learn to speak and internalize language by performing echolalia.

However, after 3 years it may be the consequence of another pathology presented by the subject or it may be a simple language delay.

Echolalia disorders

Echolalia is associated with different disorders, therefore, it can have multiple causes. Some of the most common disorders are listed below:

• Autism Spectrum Disorder: about 80% of children with this disorder have this disorder. There are different hypotheses about the origin of echolalia in ASD, one of the best known is the multifactorial one of Schuler and Prizant (1985). These authors consider that echolalia is due to the fact that these children have a deficit in verbal skills and profound limitations in social cognition.
• Tourette syndrome: it is a neurological disorder that manifests before the age of 18 and which is characterized by multiple motor tics and one or more vocal tics for more than a year. In this disorder, the use of echolalia is frequent, as well as cropolalia (involuntary emission of obscene words) and palilalia (involuntary repetition of a word several times in a row and spasmodic).
• Schizophrenia: Specifically, it is a subtype of catatonic schizophrenia, which consists of immobility or excessive motor activity. Other symptoms similar to echolalia such as echopraxia (repetition by the subject of the gestures that he sees his interlocutor) are also frequent.
• Aphasias: aphasias are acquired language disorders due to a brain injury, specifically in the temporal lobe. Ecolalias usually occur frequently in transcortical sensory aphasia, in which the subject has language comprehension deficits. In this type of aphasia there is also the presence of verbal paraphasias (unintentional production of syllables, words or phrases).
• Dementias: they are neurodegenerative disorders, characterized by the presence of multiple cognitive deficits. Language disorders are usually quite common. Ecolalias are usually present in disorders such as: Parkinson's, Pick's disease, among others.

There are different types of echolalia according to different criteria. Let's see which ones there are:

Response latency

Depending on the latency of the response, that is, the time it takes for the repetition to appear, we find these two types of echolalia:

• Immediate echolalia: the subject repeats the expression of his interlocutor immediately after its production. It is the most common type.
• Delayed or delayed echolalia: As the name suggests, this is delayed replay. In most cases, it may take hours, days, or even months for a subject with delayed echolalia to repeat the last words she has heard. For example, children with autism spectrum disorder often repeat things they heard from their parents or on television.

Communicative intention

Depending on whether or not it exists communicative intentionality In behavior, we can differentiate between the two types of echolalia:

• Functional echolalia: the echo emitted has a communicative intention.
• Non-functional echolaliaRepetition lacks a communicative purpose and often has a self-stimulating or self-regulating function. That is, repetitions can reassure the subject. This type occurs especially in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Finally, it must be added that sometimes the repetitions are exact, even imitating the intonation, but when it is not, it is:

• Echolalia mitigated or expanded: when the subject introduces variations in the repetition and it does not occur exactly.

At present, no treatment has been found to eliminate echolalia, since as mentioned above the causes may be different. However, a series of guidelines can be worked out with the patient so that repetitions are reduced. Let's see some examples:

1. Speak slowly, with good articulation and using facial expressions to facilitate patient understanding.
2. Instructions clear and precise.
3. Give a time frame to respond, so they will be able to process the information that has been given to them.
4. Use simple vocabulary, to facilitate your understanding

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Echolalia: what is it, causes, types and treatment, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

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