For a long time Chetana (name changed), a 10-year-old specially-abled child, would repeat every question anyone asked her instead of answering it.
Chetana suffered from Echolalia, the act of immediately and involuntarily repeating words or phrases spoken by another person. After being treated for it by her teacher Manisha Suresh Hegde at Srishti Special Academy in Moodalapalya, she has now learnt to respond to questions without repeating them.
“We would ask a question and append the answer at the end of the question for her to repeat. This way she learnt to respond,” he said.
About 50 per cent of children suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) suffer from Echolalia, said Dr John Vijay Sagar, Associate Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), who sees almost 12-15 ASD children a week.
Echolalia could also occur in children who have no speech or learning disorders. However, it could be symptomatic of ASD, if the child aged beyond 3-3.5 years also shows intellectual disability, he said.
“Some children also show pronoun reversal and refer to themselves as ‘you’ and the others as ‘me’,” Sagar added.
Aloofness from peers and engagement in solitary play also might indicate mental retardation, he noted.
“Echolalia could be accompanied by Asperger’s Syndrome, another high-functioning variant of Autism,” he said.
Children suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome developed age-appropriate vocabulary and could form long and coherent sentences but could not use language in a social situation, he said. “This calls for immediate evaluation of the child,” he added.
However, he said if Echolalia was not accompanied by Asperger’s Syndrome or other developmental defects, early intervention with a speech and language therapist or paediatrician could help in treating the child.
The corrective method used to treat this developmental disorder is ‘Language Therapy’, said Speech and Language Pathologist Sanjay Kumar.
“In autistic children who are communicative, Echolalia can be corrected by teaching them the meanings of words and phrases. That way, we train them to understand what they speak,” he said.