Echolalia in the language development of autistic individuals: a bibliographical review

Abstract

Background: echolalia is one of the most common symptoms among the language characteristics in Autism.

Aim: to provide a detailed literature revision about the role of echolalia in the language development process of autistic individuals, and to discuss the use of this language feature in the speech-language clinical practice. The researches show classifications and analysis criterions of echolalia in a discursive context. A few of the analyzed studies are against the use of echolalia, pointing that it has no communicative function, and therefore should be discouraged. On the other hand, other studies indicate that echolalia has a communicative value and can be used as a communicative in speech-language intervention.

Conclusion: this bibliographical review raises the issue about the importance of evaluating the conditions in which echolalia might occur before considering it as having a communicative value or not.