Music in the Assessment and Treatment of Echolalia

Abstract

the echo is a precise, literal, and complete repetition; in "mitigated echolalia," the echo is a shortened, lengthened, restructured, or otherwise modified version of the original utterance (Fay, 1967). Here, the distinction depends upon how many aspects of the two utterances are compared, (ie., whether the words, grammar, syntax, intonation, and/or prosody are compared). Examples of mitigated echolalia included "telegraphic speech" Treatment of Echolalia KENNETH E. BRUSCIA. Ph.D.. C.M.T. Echolalia is generally defined as the tendency to echo or repeat the speech of others. Although frequently related to other repetitive behaviors, echolalia can be distinguished from echopraxia, which involves motor rather than verbal imitation (Schuler, 1979), from palilalia, which involves verbal imitation of oneself rather than others (Boller, Albert, Denes, 1975), and from perseveration, which involves several repetitions of a single act rather than single repetitions of several acts. Even when delimited to verbal, nonperseverative imitation of others, echolalia is an exceedingly complex and diverse phenomenon. Echolalic behaviors differ within and between individuals along several dimensions or variables. One most often used to differentiate echolalic behaviors is the timing of the response, or when the echo occurs in relation to the original utterance. In "immediate echolalia," the verbal echo occurs immediately after the original utterance, wheras in "delayed echolalia," the echo occurs hours, days, weeks, or months after the original utterance (Freeman, Ritvo, & Miller, 1975). This distinction naturally becomes obsecure whenever the length of lapsed time is more than a few seconds but less than an hour, and especially when other utterances have intervened between the original utterance and the echo. A second variable that differentiates echolalic behaviors is the degree of similarity between the echo and the original utterance. In "pure echolalia,"