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My Preschool Daughter Needs Therapy

Getting my preschool aged daughter help for expressive/receptive speech disorders and echolalia. Does it mean autism? Know the warning signs and treatment options for 3 and 4 year olds with echolalia.

I haven’t done a real, honest update on my family in awhile. This year started out rough with my bulldog dying, another premature birth at 36 weeks, and the realization that something was off with Brady. Namely her speech and the fear of echolalia in my preschooler.

Understandably things have changed on the blog as well but I wanted to share what’s really been going on. Family and blog balance has been weighing on me more in the last six months than ever before.

In January I enrolled Brady (my 3 year old) in a tumbling class once a week. She went from a shy, clingy girl afraid of strangers and demanding I carry her around in her class (at 8 months pregnant) to a happy and friendly girl that’s eager to try new things.

So what’s the problem? I noticed right away that the other kids in her class were far more articulate and easier to have conversations with. It wasn’t until she began interacting with strangers on a regular basis that I realized how much she relied on me to interpret/communicate for her.

My 3 year old repeats questions instead of answering and repeats phrases over and over.

In all other areas she seemed like a normally developing child so I didn’t rush to have her evaluated. I just committed myself to spending even more focused time than I did with her before. This meant less time for me on the computer, fewer games on the iPad for her, and less time allowing her to watch TV/movies. Obviously seeing how cartoon characters interacted and spoke was not doing her any favors and wasn’t helping her understand and be understood.

Getting my preschool aged daughter help for expressive/receptive speech disorders and echolalia. Does it mean autism? Know the warning signs and treatment options for 3 and 4 year olds with echolalia.

I knew something was off but wasn’t sure quite what to expect from a formal evaluation. Try Googling speech and echoing and you’re likely to find an Autism Spectrum disorder or some other frightening diagnosis among the results. And add that your daughter was born prematurely at 31 weeks and wowsa. Echolalia is common amongst those with Autism but also how kids learn to understand language.

Take heart moms, your preschooler can have echolalia without autism.

Instead of freaking out (for too long anyway) I took her to a Speech Language Pathologist for an evaluation. While she does have some issues with articulation such as dropping articles (the, a, etc.), pronouncing certain letter combinations (“L” and “TH”), and clarity (she speaks quickly and mumbles – a combination she picked up from my husband and myself), her test scores were well within the normal/average.

But she still needs echolalia treatment which means weekly speech therapy for a year (or less – it depends on how quickly she learns) because of deficiencies in her expressive/receptive language. When we started, she had difficulty answering questions with a yes or no answer and instead responded with the last few more of my question (echolalia), responding to “wh” questions, understanding pronouns (me, you, and I) and speaking clearly.

Getting my preschool aged daughter help for expressive/receptive speech disorders and echolalia. Does it mean autism? Know the warning signs and treatment options for 3 and 4 year olds with echolalia.

Trying to address the expressive and receptive language disorders is only made more difficult by the echolalia. She literally echos a lot of the things I say. Any sort of slang or frustrated expressions (oh crap) is out the window because she repeats it. With lots of work I now have her saying, “Oh sugar”, if there’s a situation that warrants this expression. But not just with obvious phrases like this, it’s everything. I can’t repeatedly use the same wording or she will take that as a cue that’s how she should talk. An example of this is while playing Candy Land I was telling her, “Pick a card”, each time it was her turn. So she said it every time either of us drew a card. I have to mix it up and say, “Choose a card”, or, “Select a card”, or “Your Turn.”

Can echolalia be cured?

So far, Brady has only had four sessions with the Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) but I can already see a significant improvement in her speech. The difference has been even more dramatic for family members that don’t see her everyday. That’s not to say she doesn’t need to continue her weekly sessions because she does. But seeing this progress has reaffirmed that I’m doing the right thing by continuing to pace myself in other areas to give her the time and attention she needs.

My family is my life. I may only post two times a week instead of three, the dishes may pile up in the sink, but those are things that can wait. My daughter needing help with speaking and communicating can’t wait.

Has your child ever had any difficulties with speech? Have you ever freaked yourself out with some help from Dr. Google?

If you have any questions about your preschooler with echolalia, send me an email and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have! You’d have no idea that Brady (now 9) ever had echolalia and the autism spectrum has never been mentioned.

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Getting my preschool aged daughter help for expressive/receptive speech disorders and echolalia. Does it mean autism? Know the warning signs and treatment options for 3 and 4 year olds with echolalia.

Jennifer

Friday 28th of February 2020

I would like to contact you about questions/concerns I have about my 3.5 year old daughter. I feel like you could help me. Thank you.

Kelly

Friday 28th of February 2020

Feel free to email me, [email protected]

Robin

Monday 30th of July 2012

It is good that you started this early. The sooner the better for therapies like this.

Jennifer H

Monday 30th of July 2012

What a great Mom! You took action to solve this issue now. She's still fairly young and I'm certain she will do well!

Liz @ A Nut in a Nutshell

Monday 30th of July 2012

There has been a lot of progress already. I'm glad you were able to jump right on it and start speech therapy!

Nichol

Wednesday 25th of July 2012

Gavyn was in speech for 2 years. He had many articulation issues and couldn't pronounce many words. He did great with speech therapy in school. Zoe has a few speech problems but her preschool teacher feels she won't need speech. So happy you're seeing a difference already!