Speech of people with autism: Echolalia and echolalic speech

Abstract

Speech of people with autism is recognised as one of the basic diagnostic, therapeutic and theoretical problems. One of the most common symptoms of autism in children is echolalia, described here as being of different types and severity. This paper presents the results of studies into different levels of echolalia, both in normally developing children and in children diagnosed with autism, discusses the differences between simple echolalia and echolalic speech - which can be considered to be a characteristic symptom in children with autism - and the correlation between echolalic speech and other symptoms of autism. It introduces a view of autism as a communication disorder characterised by specific speech development patterns and specific ways of acquiring social communication skills.