Echolalia

This article is about the speech disorder. For the album by Something for Kate, see Echolalia (album).

Echolalia is the automatic repetition of vocalizations made by another person. It is closely related to echopraxia, the automatic repetition of movements made by another person.

The word "echolalia" is derived from the Greek ἠχώ meaning "echo" or "to repeat", and λαλιά (laliá) meaning "babbling, meaningless talk" (of onomatopoeic origin from the verb λαλέω (laléo) meaning "I talk").

Associated conditions

Echolalia can be present in autism and other developmental disabilities, Tourette syndrome, aphasia, Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, schizophrenia, Asperger syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder,^{[citation needed]} Alzheimer's Disease, mental retardation and, occasionally, other forms of psychopathology including Catatonic subtype in Schizophrenia. It is also frequently found in blind or visually impaired children, although most will outgrow this behavior. When done involuntarily, echolalia may be considered a tic.

It has been observed after cerebral infarction (stroke).

Presentation

Immediate echolalia causes the immediate repetition of a word or phrase.

A typical pediatric presentation of echolalia might be: a child is asked, "Do you want dinner?" the child echoes back "Do you want dinner?" followed by a pause and then a response, "Yes. What's for dinner?"

In delayed echolalia, a phrase is repeated after a delay, such as a person with autism who repeats TV commercials, favorite movie scripts, or parental reprimands.