Is this normal speech?
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Anonymous
| When I ask my 2.5 yr old to say hi he repeats ‘say hi’ instead of just saying hi. Is this normal? If I say do you want me to carry you he repeats ‘carry you’ .. his speech was delayed and he spoke late and seems to understand things much better but clearly this is just echolalia without understanding right? |
Anonymous
| Yes normal. It’s how he processes, actually a good sign. |
Anonymous
| It is echolalia but get him a speech evaluation and therapy. It is normal for some kids and they can catch up but it’s delayed. |
Anonymous
But it doesn’t seem that he is comprehending it. Like he would continue walking while repeating ‘carry you’ so I don’t know what to make of it. |
Anonymous
There are two kinds of speech. Receptive which is understanding and expressive that is speaking. If he is struggling, get a good speech evaluation and maybe see the a developmental ped. |
Anonymous
It’s a type of processing. My kid was delayed too and we saw a speech therapist - kids who process like that need the full context of things before they start talking on their own. While it sounds like he doesn’t understand it, he’s repeating it to fit into different contexts in his brain. Likely he will go from not talking to speaking full sentences and paragraphs, like mine did. A speech therapist could explain it better than I, but they immediately said that’s what would probably happen, and it did. My kid still repeats as she learns new things. |
Anonymous
Remembered - it’s called Gestalt Language Processing. You can look it up but the internet will scare you with possible autism. My speech therapist said the majority of kids seen as delayed process with Gestalt because it just naturally comes later, and the vast majority do not have autism. My kid does not. |
Anonymous
| This seems normal to me my 2.25 y.o does this and she has no speech delays. |
Anonymous
| My 2.5 son does this. He was just diagnosed with ASD last week. He had other indicators as well, which weren’t that obvious to me until it was explained after the evaluation. Not to alarm you but if you’re concerned it’s worth scheduling an evaluation - echolalia was what finally got me to make the appointment (after having some speech delays but not qualifying for early intervention). It took several months to get the appointment. |
Anonymous
What were the other indicators for your son, if you don’t mind sharing? |
Anonymous
This was us as well and also got the ASD diagnosis at 2.5. Similarly, DD did not qualify for EI because she wasn’t delayed enough (but did qualify once she had ASD diagnosis). For us other factors including gestalt language processing (which in her case was a big one) were trouble with joint attention (like pointing things out and looking back at us like check out that cool plane or whatever interesting object. She did point, just not as a way to communicate joint interest). Some fixed interests—liking a certain color, shape, or toy, and not quite understanding how to do more than parallel play. Honestly most of it is and still is language and social pragmatics. In some ways she’s vastly improved speech over the 1.5 years of diagnosis but new challenges have presented themselves—I had some doubts about diagnosis but now not so much. We have had some really wonderful speech and language pathologists. Gestalt language processing often happens in ASD children but is not exclusive to them—it’s just a different way some kids process language. If your kid is meeting all other socializing milestones—doesn’t seem inflexible/rigid interests/has good joint attention/no real sensory issues—I wouldn’t worry too much about ASD. But agreed with others to pursue speech if it seems like your child is struggling to understand direction and language (receptive delay)—speech therapy can definitely help. Not sure where you are located but we use OWLS speech therapy in NoVa and they are great. |
Anonymous
| My 2.5 yo has no delays and can speak full sentences but will still do this on occasion so seems normal to me! |
Anonymous
| I think it’s genetic. My MIL says my husband did the exact same thing, not autistic but highly intelligent. May be interesting to ask your in-laws. And your pediatrician. I’d get their recommendation on speech therapy because I wouldn’t pay for it just for this situation. If your pediatrician thinks he needs it you can get it through the county (atleast in my state). |
Anonymous
| Some echolalia is normal until age 3. Unless there are other “red flags” I wouldn’t worry (-mom of 4 NT kids, 1 Asd kid) |
Anonymous
PP here - the first indication was that he wasn't pointing at 18 months, which is what prompted the early intervention evaluation. He eventually started pointing at 19 months, but still has never been a big pointer. He was also obsessed with numbers and letters starting around that same time. He would do "odd" play activities that I didn't recognize were an ASD thing until his evaluation - he was obsessed with toy cars and would lay on the ground and roll them and also stack them in a row. He did some tippy toe walking and liked to twirl in circles. He would often have meltdowns over slight changes in routine. During the evaluation it turned out that he was way behind in his conversational skills, which again, I didn't really notice since he's my only and we don't hang around with others his age much. He talks a lot, with a big vocabulary, but it's a lot more of him requesting and telling us about things than back and forth. |