Contents
In line with its mission, the Editorial Board of MedTvoiLokony makes every effort to provide reliable medical content supported by the latest scientific knowledge. The additional flag “Checked Content” indicates that the article has been reviewed by or written directly by a physician. This two-step verification: a medical journalist and a doctor allows us to provide the highest quality content in line with current medical knowledge.
Our commitment in this area has been appreciated, among others, by by the Association of Journalists for Health, which awarded the Editorial Board of MedTvoiLokony with the honorary title of the Great Educator.
Echolalia is a thinking disorder where the person repeats words or phrases, or even complete sentences from other people. Usually, repetition has nothing to do with when words or phrases are spoken. Echolalia often appears as one of the symptoms of autism, Tourette’s syndrome and catatonic schizophrenia. Echolalia can be immediate or delayed. In young children, so-called developmental echolalia occurs – this is a natural phenomenon and is not cause for concern.
Symptoms of echolalia
Echolalia consists in repeating overheard words or phrases. In the first years of life echolalia is a natural phenomenon – children repeat words and phrases spoken by adults, thus learning the language.
In adulthood, however, the repetition of words and whole sentences overheard in various circumstances is treated as a disease symptom. Afflicted echolalia a person can express the content spoken by others not only in the same order, but also in the same tone – then we have a disturbing impression of listening to the recording on a voice recorder. Words and sentences are repeated in a stereotypical way – the patient does not try to communicate anything in this way. Person with symptoms echolalii shows no initiative in speaking or spontaneous reactions to the statements of others. Does not sustain conversation, does not create extended, longer statements, has problems with the pragmatics of language and does not understand abstract concepts.
Types of echolalia
Echolalia comes in two forms. The first is echolalia immediate. In this case, the patient repeats the overheard words at once. The second kind echolalii to echolalia postponed. The patient may repeat what he has heard over time, even after days or weeks. This usually happens in an inadequate situation. This gives the impression of playing back the recording without any connection with the ongoing conversation.
Echolalia development can go in echolalia immediate or postponed. The child begins to use the so-called speech echolalicwhich does not help to communicate with the environment – the child repeats overheard words and phrases irrespective of the circumstances in which he or she is at the moment. This usually indicates a more serious problem like autism.
Echolalia it is a disturbance of communication skills and makes it difficult to communicate with the patient. In immediate form echolalii For example, the patient may repeat the doctor’s questions unchanged without answering them.
The causes of echolalia
Echolalia appears in autism, with Tourette’s syndrome and in catatonic schizophrenia. Sometimes it is also caused by a stroke or the dementia disorder.
Young children often repeat words heard from adults or whole phrases heard, for example, while watching cartoons on TV. There is usually no cause for concern, as long as the child has not been diagnosed with other disorders, most notably autism and Tourette’s syndrome. If these disorders do occur, there is a risk of it echolalia is not a natural phenomenon with speech development and may not disappear with age.
In adults echolalia it sometimes occurs as a result of head injury, stroke, epilepsy, Pick’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and progressive supranuclear palsy. It can also be caused by schizophrenia – the patient then repeats the overheard words in order to cut himself off from the stimuli coming from the outside world (the form of catatonia).
Treatment methods for echolalia
Treatment of echolalia is primarily about speech therapy and the one aimed at improving communication skills. In the case of children with a problem in the form of echolalii you work to improve verbal communication both in therapy sessions and in the home environment. The child is taught to speak simple yet varied language. They are also taught to formulate their own statements, and not repeat statements overheard in various circumstances. For example, the unfinished sentence method is used, encouraging the child to complete unfinished statements on his own.
For patients with a disorder in the form of echolalii it is important that they have as many opportunities to express themselves as possible. In the case of adults, it should be first and foremost treat a medical condition disrupting communication in the character echolaliiand thus, for example, stroke, dementia or schizophrenia.