View past chats on this topic here: April 5, 2018 and July 18, 2021.

Echolalia is repeating spoken words that someone else has said. It might be immediate (right after they’ve said it) or delayed.

Everybody uses echolalia sometimes, but is more common in autistic people as well as in people with some other neurological conditions. #AutChat

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Echolalia does many things: It can help with social interactions, or self-regulation, or be a form of stimming, for example.

Here is a blog post that talks more about echolalia: https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/2007/04/05/the-naked-mechanisms-of-echolalia/ #AutChat

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Q1 Do you have experience with echolalia, either immediate or delayed? Share as much or as little as you like. #AutChat

Q2 Are there any words or phrases you commonly repeat (or that you particularly like)? #AutChat

Q3 What does echolalia do for you? Does it serve particular purposes, or just happen?

Is it different when it’s immediate versus delayed echolalia (if you do both)? #AutChat

Q4 Does your echolalia have particular triggers? If so, what? #AutChat

Q5 Do you have any other echophenomena—for example, echoing others’ actions, their facial expressions, your own thoughts? #AutChat

Thanks to @ajlinker for helping write questions for this chat!