Simply put echolalia is repeating or “echoing” what another person has said.

Echolalia is a characteristic frequently associated with Autism and researchers have found that up to 85% of people with autism, who are verbal, display echolalia of some form. However, Echolalia is a part of typical language development and normally begins at the age of 18 months of age and declines significantly by the age of three. In children with autism, echolalia occurs with greater frequency and lasts for a longer period of time than it does in children with typical language development. 

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A sad and common belief people hold, is that Autistic People do not speak or have limited speech so there is no point speaking to them. They also think they are not listening and speak about them infront of them, as if they were not even there. Would you enjoy being treated like that?

Social impairments, difficulty with eye contact and language and communication challenges are often cited as the main reason for people with Autism not engaging in conversation. It is always interesting to me, how people often blame the autistic person and make it appear the problem is always with them due to their autism. However I have often observed, that people frequently do not speak much to  Autistic, especially if they are nonverbal or if they have very limited language or talk repetitively about the same thing. And if people do speak to them, often they change their tone and the whole manner they speak, so that it is NOT in the same way they would normally speak to a non-autistic person.  I assure you, even if an autistic person is nonverbal or has little speech, they are aware of the difference. 

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