# How much toddler repetition is normal?



## crwilson (Mar 13, 2007)

I am going to talk to my pediatrician about this as soon as I can get an appointment, but in the meantime, I'd love some feedback from other mamas. My dd is about 2.5 years old, and as far as I can tell, she's developed on schedule. And, I've never had any worries about autism, etc....until now, when I read another thread about echolalia.

DD has many books memorized and will repeat them when she gets bored; she has many songs memorized; she has the scripts to her favorite videos memorized - all of these things she repeats, for example, when she's trying to fall asleep. We call her our little parrot because she repeats everything we say. It never occurred to me that this could be a problem; in fact, I thought that it was quite funny. She also doesn't have pronouns down - she says things like "May I have a drink please?" but she often calls herself "you" when she sees a picture of herself or looks in the mirror. She definitely says things that I say a lot, like she'll tell me "I want a drink please" and then she'll say, as if me, "Are you thirsty?" She counts, knows her shapes and colors, knows her alphabet (knows all her letters by sight), and reads a few words here and there. Again, this didn't give me cause for concern until I started researching autism in toddlers.

She's also a very, very picky eater and has gotten worse over the past six months. She does, however, interact well socially, likes other kids, is emotionally responsive, listens and follows directions. She does not get terribly involved in one activity, doesn't have unusual gestures. It's just the language thing...

What do you think? Should I worry too much? Or do other toddlers do this too?


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## Jeannettea (Apr 2, 2006)

My youngest ds is almost 3 (will be in October). He also repeats things when I ask him questions, but I think this is more of a way to cement it in his head. This is actually good for reading comprehension I think (I have a bach in elem ed and work w/ kids grades K-8). He repeats what I ask, then he answers me.

He started talking VERY LATE (as in, at about 30 months old and didn't really start saying lots of sentences until the middle of May - now I can't shut him up!).

He always repeated things before that, but he wouldn't use the information at all. Mostly, things were just one word - for instance, in late March, we were at the soccer field and he had taken his ball and wanted to play with the kids who were practicing. There were over 300 kids on the fields in various spots w/ different teams, and on that day there were NO KIDS there just watching! Poor little thing - he kept going from one team to another, asking, "Ball? Ball?" meaning he wanted them to play ball w/ him.

Now he would bring a ball to me or another kid and say, "Play ball w/ me?" or "Look! Ball! Let's play!!!"

Does your dd also say things to you w/out it being repitition? For instance, does she see a fire truck and get excited and point, say things (even if it's just a few words that don't really "fit" together), etc.? If so, that points more to late talking - especially w/ the gesturing. Gesturing is very important in that the child gets they have to show you b/c you aren't understanding exactly what's being said w/out it - that shows the child has a good grasp on hearing language but not yet on expressive language (sorry, I forget the actual terms for those two things!).

One of the things I did when really worried about my ds was to print off pictures from the internet of things I thought he should know like drink, cookie, cat, dog, hand, etc. and put those into a little photo album (just one of the cheap freebie ones you get when you order prints). I typed the name of each item under the picture so he could see the written word of it, too. For a long time, he couldn't say very many of the words. We would go over that book daily, though, sometimes 10x a day, just reading the words and looking at the pictures. He loved it. Eventually he said most of the words but still not all, and then we lost the book somewhere in the playroom (b/c he carried it around quite a bit).

Yesterday I was cleaning the playroom and sorting out toys to rotate out, and I found the book. He grabbed my hand and said, "Sit down Mommy! I read book you!" He sat beside me and not only named every single picture, he also would tell me details about each picture ("dassa RED shirt Mommy! dat dog is Midge" - our dog is named Smidge and he calls her Midge). He also pointed to the phone picture and then counted each of the number buttons 1-9. LOL

I hope this helps some!!!


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## crwilson (Mar 13, 2007)

Thank you for your quick response - I find it very reassuring. I think I'm having an anxious day & letting it spill over. DD does initiate lots of speech - like she got up from her nap, saw a dog and said, "I see a dog. Woof woof." Then she went inside, sat on the couch, and said, "Daddy and Mommy sit on the clouch with me please." (Clouch=couch). She has a pretty large vocab., it's just the repeating thing that had me worried. I mean, she knows at least 30, maybe more, of her books by heart, as well as her yoga videos. And when dp and I have a conversation, she sits beside us and repeats it. That said, I've been asking her all sorts of questions, and she responds appropriately. (Like, "What do you see?" "It's a lake"). I think that it was some site that had three characteristics - the echophalia, knowing how to read early (as I said, she knows some words by sight and all of the individual letters of the alphabet by sight), and picky eating - at the very end of their "autism symptoms list" and I panicked. I'm still going to talk to her pedi about it though.


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## 95191 (Nov 8, 2007)

http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/com...lalidelay.html

This site may help, if you haven't seen it.

I would make a check list of items that you feel may be of issue and present it at your apt.-it doesn't hurt to have an evaluation and see what happens. If you feel there is any question, I would ask and take it from there.


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## themamamama (Jul 1, 2006)

Sounds exactly like my son's language at 2.5. He's now almost 4 and has since been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. He still has difficulty with pronouns and about 90% of what he says is a quote from somewhere.

But don't panic. I think it's probably worth an evaluation, but language differences alone don't necessarily mean autism. Lots of NT kids repeat things and have trouble with pronouns. Without attending social difficulties, it's not autism.

Couple questions though -- does your DD talk about thoughts or feelings, or only concrete things? Can she tell you if she's happy, or sad, or hungry, or in pain? DS has always been a great labeler, and can certainly order me around







, but he can't tell me what's in his head, or his body, for that matter. I still have to diagnose ear infections from fussiness and ear-pulling, like you do for babies.

Does your DD show you things? Does she point out things for you to look at? DS does not. He mostly talks to the air, without noticing if anyone is listening. Can she hold a conversation, with back-and-forth, and responding to what you say, or does she mostly talk at you?

ETA: Just read the link serenbat posted... DS does all of those, I guess he's an echolalic speaker.


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## crwilson (Mar 13, 2007)

Yes, she does identify feelings like pain or hunger or thirst, but not really feelings yet. She'll sometimes say that she feels sad, but she doesn't identify other emotions.

She definitely shows me things that she's excited about. I read the link, and most of those things don't describe her behavior at all. The only thing she's done on that list is "correcting" herself when she knows she's doing something that she's not supposed to do (i.e. when she's whining she'll say "why are you whining?" to herself). She talks to us, but I wouldn't say that she's a great conversationalist yet. So if she brings me one of her animals, she will tell me that she has it and what it is, and if I ask questions about them, she answers them (like what color of shirt is your doll wearing - that kind of question). She also talks to her animals and dolls and they "talk back."


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## themamamama (Jul 1, 2006)

Those sound like good social signs.


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## loraxc (Aug 14, 2003)

My DD was a very echolalic speaker and also memorized her books and knew all the alphabet and could read a few words quite early. She also reversed her pronouns till almost 3. All of her strange language has gone away and she is an extremely social and bright child, albeit not always an easy one. She does seem to have mild SPD (sensory processing disorder), but she is definitely not autistic. At one time we had concerns about Asperger's, but she really does not fit the criteria and never has. But I read lists like the one you read and was nervous.

I think some bright kids just learn language this way. FWIW, DD is now a voracious self-taught reader, and she hasn't learned that the "typical" way either.


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## crwilson (Mar 13, 2007)

Thank you for all the replies. I talked to my MIL yesterday, and she said that my dp was very much the same way when he was little. She said that she nearly went crazy from all the repetition, but he grew out of it. He remained, and is still, rather obsessive though and very imaginative. Your replies eased my worries, though, so that I can talk to my pedi and see what she thinks without fretting in the meantime. Thank you!


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