Dear Carrie, How do I Help a Child with Delayed Echolalia?

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Dear Carrie,
I have a client with autism who uses delayed echolalia to communicate. He will repeat whole sentences he's heard in the past. For example, if he wants something you have, he will walk up and say "Do you want it?". How can I help him come up with his own utterances?
Signed,
Functional Communicator
Dear Functional,
Thanks for the question! When children begin speaking in full sentences that they are repeating after others, we call this gestalt language processing. There is a very specific formula for how we help that child break longer sentences down into units and single words so we can help them build spontaneous sentences after that. This video will show you how that works.
Check out our free echolalia resources on the website here: www.speechandl...
Signed, Carrie Clark, CCC-SLP