Meet Christi Eads!
SWAN is delighted to announce the addition of another great professional mentor who has accepted our invitation to serve in a professional mentor capacity to the SWAN community. Meet R. Christi Eads, M.S. CCC-SLP, a speech and language pathologist. Christi earned a Bachelor of Science as well as a Masters degree at Missouri State University with high honors for her course work in speech pathology at MSU. Beyond her Speech Pathology degree, Christi has experience with IEP advocacy, Sign Language, Applied Behavioral Analysis, Applied Verbal Behavior, First Steps, PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), the FloorTime Model, and is currently an Independent Certified Instructor of the Baby Signs ® programs. She is licensed/certified with ASHA, DESE and the Missouri Board of Healing Arts. She serves as president of her company Expressions Speech-Language Pathology, LLC and is honored to serve as a mentor and advocate to the SWAN.
Thank you Dani
I wanted to thank everyone for their warm welcome in supporting the SWAN families and Autism Speaks teams. I had the chance to talk about my best friend who passed away at the walk appreciation ceremony recently. Dani will be remembered every year at the walk and her family and I will walk in her honor. Thank you so much for supporting them through our loss of a precious friend, mother, wife, daughter, cousin, advocate, therapist and the list goes on.
October 25, 1983 ~September 19, 2011 Please contact me when questions arise. I have been in a conversation with a local mother about ECHOLALIA. Contact me with your thoughts, stuggles or successes on this subject. I plan to post on the subject soon, when our travels have settled down. My little one, Levi has some medical appointments at St. Louis Children's and at the Thompson Center in the coming weeks. Another topic I would love for you to write me about is your experience in regressions with language, speech and feeding. Let me know if you experience them, and what your instincts are about what may have preceded them. I would love to compile information on this subject from our community. |
A Word From Christi
I am honored to serve the SWAN community as a professional mentor and advocate! I believe that every child has a voice, and that early intervention is critical in helping children find their voice. I have a toddler that doctors believe to be on the spectrum. I support and believe not only in the need for early intervention, but believe that research is also critically important for the future of our loved ones affected by autism. If you have a question for me, I would love to hear from you. Simply go to the link below and send in your question. I will be sharing information with the SWAN community on this page, and will be happy to answer your questions on this forum as well. I look forward to hearing from you!
March 6, 2012 Levi was diagnosed officially with Autism at 16 months old. Evident signs were noticed at 8 months old. He has had feeding, sleeping and sensory difficulties since birth.
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Echolalia
Write in Question: Hi Christi! I have a son that falls on the Autism spectrum, more in the Aspergers category. Lately he repeats what we say ALOT, especially when he is in trouble or we are talking to him about a consequence. (parrot talk?) How do we handle this, other than just saying, "do not repeat us" which is not working... Thank you!
Write in Comment: In regards to regresssion...my son has regressed in his handwriting after we moved. It was very odd. He was a child with echolalia and had very little functional speech until about 5-6 years old and even then it was scattered. however, that was beginning for him and we can't get him to be quiet. Echolalia is a good sign I think for those who are wanting to develop functional speech.
Thoughts from Christi:
I thought I would ask you a few questions to help see the situation more clearly. First thank you for writing, you are my first one! I will do my best to help understand the function of the echolalia (repeating) type speech. How old is your son and is the echolalia something that he has used during his language aquisition in the past?
Just by first glance not knowing anything about your son, I would say that the echolalia is less of a defiant behavior and more of a coping skill for memory retention. If you notice it a lot in stressful situations, like getting in trouble, it may be his way trying to remember what happened and learn from it. Or it could be more of a nervous habit also. Very likely with your son he is repeating you and "buying time" in a sense, because language processing is difficult in a lot of children with autism. Auditory processing may be delayed and your son is smart enough to have developed some skill to assist in his understanding. Hearing you say it, then hearing himself say it...may give him a better success rate of understanding the world around him. Echolalia is seen in normal development in young children. Children and adults with autism sometimes get stuck in this development phase and there are ways to reinforce more realistic conversation. A lot will depend on what you believe your son can comprehend. Is he at a level of understanding where you could ask why he needs to repeat things? If not, a strategy would be to answer what he says literally to reinforce a more typical conversation structure. Write me back a little more about him and his skill level and I will help you think of some ways to shape that into a better communication sequence.
Follow up questions and answers to the write in question:
> Does he tend to echo when asked a question more, echo statements, or just anything? echo anything, more statements though
> Does he echo only in stressful situations? Like getting into trouble, or learning new information? both, but more n stressful situations
> Is it always an immediate echo or does he have any delayed echolalia minutes hours or days later? usually immeiate
> You mentioned that echolalia is not part of his history, how long has he been doing it and was in couple with any big changes? Good or bad, just any type of routine change. He's been doing it for several months now...not any major changes going on...
> Is he on an IEP, or have any therapies? And what are his most significant struggles? What would be a couple of his strengths? Would you describe him as a pretty visual learner? He doesn't have an IEP, but would. I homeschool him. He falls on the autism spectrum in the PDD category, is very intelligent, struggles with social and behavior issues. He also has sensory dysfunction. Yes, a very visual learner.
Thoughts from Christi:
It's good to understand if the echolalia is serving a purpose for him and what his intent may be. I understand he can't communicate that to you, so that leaves us to problem solve. Every beautiful child is different, so if something doesn't work well...let me know. You are probably intuitive enough being mom...you could solve this on your own as we talk! I have that confidence in parents, they have such a important knowledge base that I only hope to empower and support.
Now, if he is more visual...let's start there as we brainstorm. And let's target where it's happening most often first and see if it generalizes over to the other situations. So we will try stategies to be proactive in stress, and with statements.
I'm happy to know he is only repeating you immediately. If it were delayed that may be a little more tricky.
You may mention to your OT that sensory overload may be increasing instances of echolalia, if you think that may be the case. She could have some input...or brainstorm with the SLP on their team between your appointments and you would get extra professional advice :)
My suspicion is that under certain contitions either where he doens't understand a concept, or his little sensory system is off...he is smart enough to figure out that repeating helps his memory retention. Do you think he is being defiant when he does it, though? Because it could be less of a communcation difference. Let me know. I have a lot of experience with oppositional behaviors too, if we need to problem solve that route. Just let me know what your instinct is. I can tell you that if communication becomes difficult, then that can cause a spike in behaviors.
I definitely would model what he should have said in those situations. If you think that it would not make matters worse, then use it as an opportunity to talk about it and bring it up in a comfortable way. You could do some lessons on practicing repeating what you say by just thinking it during the day. You seem very creative and could do this with different activities. Tell him that he can keep it inside his head and heart, but he will still be able to hear it. Relate it to silent reading, if he is doing that.
If you think about inner speech...it's a coping skill we all use. And strangely enough..as you think to yourself..you hear yourself, you hear your own intonation and speech patterns. It's really neat to think about. I've always wondered if people who are profoundly deaf have inner speech that they can "hear".
If you can predict at all that a circumstance may bring on echolalia, attempt to end your portions of the conversations with a simple yes /no question. And use more simple, shorter sentences...so he can process information better.
You may try making whatever that current situation may be, more concrete and real to him. Maybe he needs to see you do something to understand, or maybe he needs to go through the motions of a situation to understand better. Abstract situations are typically the hardest. The older a child gets, the more the world becomes abstact and confusing. Always look at him as using this echolalia to learn language better. Getting him to internalize his thoughts all the times that it is most appropriate is the goal...but right now he is showing little signs that he is needing help understanding. It's a window to see how he looks at the world at that moment.
We would much rather him echo you, than throw a fit if he doesn't understand. So feel blessed that this starting point is a good starting point to adapt this behavior to something more functional. If he is repeating a question, actually simply reinforcing that he say "I don't know" has been researched and proven to be very helpful. A lot of times they repeat questions they don't know. And socially, it is more appropriate to say I don't know, than repeat what a friend asks.
Visually: what do you think you could incorporate to his day to show him visually how to handle situations where he is repeating you. Can he read well, or do you think pictures would be the best choice? Emotions may be a very difficult, if they are something that you think he has difficulty reading on others, or relating to...that may be a core to some of your lessons.
Write in Comment: In regards to regresssion...my son has regressed in his handwriting after we moved. It was very odd. He was a child with echolalia and had very little functional speech until about 5-6 years old and even then it was scattered. however, that was beginning for him and we can't get him to be quiet. Echolalia is a good sign I think for those who are wanting to develop functional speech.
Thoughts from Christi:
I thought I would ask you a few questions to help see the situation more clearly. First thank you for writing, you are my first one! I will do my best to help understand the function of the echolalia (repeating) type speech. How old is your son and is the echolalia something that he has used during his language aquisition in the past?
Just by first glance not knowing anything about your son, I would say that the echolalia is less of a defiant behavior and more of a coping skill for memory retention. If you notice it a lot in stressful situations, like getting in trouble, it may be his way trying to remember what happened and learn from it. Or it could be more of a nervous habit also. Very likely with your son he is repeating you and "buying time" in a sense, because language processing is difficult in a lot of children with autism. Auditory processing may be delayed and your son is smart enough to have developed some skill to assist in his understanding. Hearing you say it, then hearing himself say it...may give him a better success rate of understanding the world around him. Echolalia is seen in normal development in young children. Children and adults with autism sometimes get stuck in this development phase and there are ways to reinforce more realistic conversation. A lot will depend on what you believe your son can comprehend. Is he at a level of understanding where you could ask why he needs to repeat things? If not, a strategy would be to answer what he says literally to reinforce a more typical conversation structure. Write me back a little more about him and his skill level and I will help you think of some ways to shape that into a better communication sequence.
Follow up questions and answers to the write in question:
> Does he tend to echo when asked a question more, echo statements, or just anything? echo anything, more statements though
> Does he echo only in stressful situations? Like getting into trouble, or learning new information? both, but more n stressful situations
> Is it always an immediate echo or does he have any delayed echolalia minutes hours or days later? usually immeiate
> You mentioned that echolalia is not part of his history, how long has he been doing it and was in couple with any big changes? Good or bad, just any type of routine change. He's been doing it for several months now...not any major changes going on...
> Is he on an IEP, or have any therapies? And what are his most significant struggles? What would be a couple of his strengths? Would you describe him as a pretty visual learner? He doesn't have an IEP, but would. I homeschool him. He falls on the autism spectrum in the PDD category, is very intelligent, struggles with social and behavior issues. He also has sensory dysfunction. Yes, a very visual learner.
Thoughts from Christi:
It's good to understand if the echolalia is serving a purpose for him and what his intent may be. I understand he can't communicate that to you, so that leaves us to problem solve. Every beautiful child is different, so if something doesn't work well...let me know. You are probably intuitive enough being mom...you could solve this on your own as we talk! I have that confidence in parents, they have such a important knowledge base that I only hope to empower and support.
Now, if he is more visual...let's start there as we brainstorm. And let's target where it's happening most often first and see if it generalizes over to the other situations. So we will try stategies to be proactive in stress, and with statements.
I'm happy to know he is only repeating you immediately. If it were delayed that may be a little more tricky.
You may mention to your OT that sensory overload may be increasing instances of echolalia, if you think that may be the case. She could have some input...or brainstorm with the SLP on their team between your appointments and you would get extra professional advice :)
My suspicion is that under certain contitions either where he doens't understand a concept, or his little sensory system is off...he is smart enough to figure out that repeating helps his memory retention. Do you think he is being defiant when he does it, though? Because it could be less of a communcation difference. Let me know. I have a lot of experience with oppositional behaviors too, if we need to problem solve that route. Just let me know what your instinct is. I can tell you that if communication becomes difficult, then that can cause a spike in behaviors.
I definitely would model what he should have said in those situations. If you think that it would not make matters worse, then use it as an opportunity to talk about it and bring it up in a comfortable way. You could do some lessons on practicing repeating what you say by just thinking it during the day. You seem very creative and could do this with different activities. Tell him that he can keep it inside his head and heart, but he will still be able to hear it. Relate it to silent reading, if he is doing that.
If you think about inner speech...it's a coping skill we all use. And strangely enough..as you think to yourself..you hear yourself, you hear your own intonation and speech patterns. It's really neat to think about. I've always wondered if people who are profoundly deaf have inner speech that they can "hear".
If you can predict at all that a circumstance may bring on echolalia, attempt to end your portions of the conversations with a simple yes /no question. And use more simple, shorter sentences...so he can process information better.
You may try making whatever that current situation may be, more concrete and real to him. Maybe he needs to see you do something to understand, or maybe he needs to go through the motions of a situation to understand better. Abstract situations are typically the hardest. The older a child gets, the more the world becomes abstact and confusing. Always look at him as using this echolalia to learn language better. Getting him to internalize his thoughts all the times that it is most appropriate is the goal...but right now he is showing little signs that he is needing help understanding. It's a window to see how he looks at the world at that moment.
We would much rather him echo you, than throw a fit if he doesn't understand. So feel blessed that this starting point is a good starting point to adapt this behavior to something more functional. If he is repeating a question, actually simply reinforcing that he say "I don't know" has been researched and proven to be very helpful. A lot of times they repeat questions they don't know. And socially, it is more appropriate to say I don't know, than repeat what a friend asks.
Visually: what do you think you could incorporate to his day to show him visually how to handle situations where he is repeating you. Can he read well, or do you think pictures would be the best choice? Emotions may be a very difficult, if they are something that you think he has difficulty reading on others, or relating to...that may be a core to some of your lessons.
Speech-Language Pathology LLC
Click here to visit website
If you need support in the vast area of communication and swallowing disorders, Christi can assist in problem solving weaknesses while supporting strengths. Have you ever wondered what your baby is thinking? Or why your baby is crying? The Baby Signs® Program teaches babies to use simple, easy-to-do gestures for communicating with their parents and caregivers. These gestures or “signs” represent an item or concept, like “cat,” “eat,” or “all gone.” Using signs gives babies a way to "talk" with their parents, before they can talk. Babies can communicate about the world around them, long before they have mastered their verbal speaking skills! Babies and toddlers often use signs as a natural part of the communication process. Many babies know how to wave "bye-bye" or use a headshake to mean "no." The Baby Signs® Program can help your baby use lots of other gestures to communicate just as easily as these more common "signs."
