From principle to practice: Creating neurodiversity-affirming learning environments for students with echolalia / Matthew J. HARRISON in Research in Autism, 126 (August 2025)  

Public ISBD [article]  inResearch in Autism > 126 (August 2025) . - p.202628 Titre : From principle to practice: Creating neurodiversity-affirming learning environments for students with echolalia Type de document : Texte imprimé et/ou numérique Auteurs : Matthew J. HARRISON, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.202628 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Echolalia  Neurodiversity  Inclusion  Education  Inclusive education Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : The shift towards understanding neurodivergence as differences to accommodate rather than deficits to remedy has been significantly influenced by advocates with lived experience, prompting educators and allied health professionals to reconsider how echolalia is conceptualised and supported in the educative environment. Echolalia, a form of communication commonly observed in Autistic individuals, is increasingly recognised as a meaningful and functional form of expression rather than merely a behavioural symptom to be eliminated. Despite growing interest in neurodiversity-affirming approaches, there remains considerable ambiguity regarding the practical application of these principles in educational contexts. This literature review aimed to address this gap by synthesising existing research that translates neurodiversity-affirming principles into classroom practices and broader education frameworks. From an initial pool of 740 articles, 8 were identified as offering high-value insights into supporting students with echolalia in ways consistent with these principles. These key works provide a foundation for educators and leadership personnel to foster cultures of acceptance, respect, and inclusivity, highlighting strategies that affirm echolalia as a legitimate and meaningful form of communication. The review synthesises practical frameworks and presents a series of considerations for implementing neurodiversity-affirming practices, including the importance of understanding communicative intent, creating supportive environments, and embracing diverse modes of expression. This synthesis offers actionable insights for educational communities seeking to align their practices with the neurodiversity paradigm, ensuring all students, including those with echolalia, are valued and supported as contributors to their education communities. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reia.2025.202628 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=565 [article] From principle to practice: Creating neurodiversity-affirming learning environments for students with echolalia [Texte imprimé et/ou numérique] / Matthew J. HARRISON, Auteur . - p.202628. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Research in Autism > 126 (August 2025) . - p.202628 Mots-clés : Echolalia  Neurodiversity  Inclusion  Education  Inclusive education Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : The shift towards understanding neurodivergence as differences to accommodate rather than deficits to remedy has been significantly influenced by advocates with lived experience, prompting educators and allied health professionals to reconsider how echolalia is conceptualised and supported in the educative environment. Echolalia, a form of communication commonly observed in Autistic individuals, is increasingly recognised as a meaningful and functional form of expression rather than merely a behavioural symptom to be eliminated. Despite growing interest in neurodiversity-affirming approaches, there remains considerable ambiguity regarding the practical application of these principles in educational contexts. This literature review aimed to address this gap by synthesising existing research that translates neurodiversity-affirming principles into classroom practices and broader education frameworks. From an initial pool of 740 articles, 8 were identified as offering high-value insights into supporting students with echolalia in ways consistent with these principles. These key works provide a foundation for educators and leadership personnel to foster cultures of acceptance, respect, and inclusivity, highlighting strategies that affirm echolalia as a legitimate and meaningful form of communication. The review synthesises practical frameworks and presents a series of considerations for implementing neurodiversity-affirming practices, including the importance of understanding communicative intent, creating supportive environments, and embracing diverse modes of expression. This synthesis offers actionable insights for educational communities seeking to align their practices with the neurodiversity paradigm, ensuring all students, including those with echolalia, are valued and supported as contributors to their education communities. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reia.2025.202628 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=565

'Let me tell you, I see echolalia as being a part of my son?s identity': Exploring echolalia as an expression of neurodiversity from a parental perspective / Eli G. COHN in Autism, 28-5 (May 2024)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism > 28-5 (May 2024) . - p.1245-1257 Titre : 'Let me tell you, I see echolalia as being a part of my son?s identity': Exploring echolalia as an expression of neurodiversity from a parental perspective Type de document : Texte imprimé et/ou numérique Auteurs : Eli G. COHN, Auteur ; Matthew J. HARRISON, Auteur ; Keith R. MCVILLY, Auteur Article en page(s) : p.1245-1257 Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : autism spectrum disorders  communication and language  echolalia  family functioning and support  neurodiversity  parents  phenomenology Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Echolalia has been described as the repetition of words, phrases, songs or other more elaborate dialogues uttered by another person, which may be immediate or delayed (International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed.). Some classify echolalia as a communication impairment reflective of delay, while others consider it a restricted, repetitive pattern of behaviours, without meaningful communicative function. Little attention is given to the experiences of non-clinicians, such as parents or teachers who may hold valuable insights to further our understanding of this phenomenon. This study forms part of a larger programme of inquiry which interviewed parents (N = 133) about their experiences of their sons' and daughters' echolalia. Using hermeneutic phenomenological analysis in an abductive framework, we present a perspective of echolalia that has largely remained silent in literature: echolalia as an expression of neurodiversity. Participants push back against the status quo of intervention, reclaiming echolalia as being a part of their child?s identity. Participants want their children to not only enjoy their echolalia but to fully embrace it as being a part of their individual identity. We propose alternatives to a purely clinical perspective of echolalia; alternatives that may place the neurodiversity-affirmative perspectives of our participants in a co-existing tension with clinicians. Lay abstract Echolalia is a commonly found speech and language condition in autistic children. Children with echolalia repeat words and phrases they previously hear in place of proving a non-repetitive response. In research and when visiting speech and language services, one of the common goals is to modify these repetitions so that these children may, more socially, engage with their surrounding environment. In our research, we identified that not all parents want their children?s echolalia to be modified. Some parents want their child to be able to enjoy echolalia and others don?t want anyone to intervene because they see it as something that makes their child unique and being unique is something to be celebrated. We believe that there might be a way for speech and language services who want to modify echolalia and the parents in our study who do not want their child?s echolalia to be modified, to be able to exist side-by-side. En ligne : https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13623613231195795 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=527 [article] 'Let me tell you, I see echolalia as being a part of my son?s identity': Exploring echolalia as an expression of neurodiversity from a parental perspective [Texte imprimé et/ou numérique] / Eli G. COHN, Auteur ; Matthew J. HARRISON, Auteur ; Keith R. MCVILLY, Auteur . - p.1245-1257. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism > 28-5 (May 2024) . - p.1245-1257 Mots-clés : autism spectrum disorders  communication and language  echolalia  family functioning and support  neurodiversity  parents  phenomenology Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Echolalia has been described as the repetition of words, phrases, songs or other more elaborate dialogues uttered by another person, which may be immediate or delayed (International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th ed.). Some classify echolalia as a communication impairment reflective of delay, while others consider it a restricted, repetitive pattern of behaviours, without meaningful communicative function. Little attention is given to the experiences of non-clinicians, such as parents or teachers who may hold valuable insights to further our understanding of this phenomenon. This study forms part of a larger programme of inquiry which interviewed parents (N = 133) about their experiences of their sons' and daughters' echolalia. Using hermeneutic phenomenological analysis in an abductive framework, we present a perspective of echolalia that has largely remained silent in literature: echolalia as an expression of neurodiversity. Participants push back against the status quo of intervention, reclaiming echolalia as being a part of their child?s identity. Participants want their children to not only enjoy their echolalia but to fully embrace it as being a part of their individual identity. We propose alternatives to a purely clinical perspective of echolalia; alternatives that may place the neurodiversity-affirmative perspectives of our participants in a co-existing tension with clinicians. Lay abstract Echolalia is a commonly found speech and language condition in autistic children. Children with echolalia repeat words and phrases they previously hear in place of proving a non-repetitive response. In research and when visiting speech and language services, one of the common goals is to modify these repetitions so that these children may, more socially, engage with their surrounding environment. In our research, we identified that not all parents want their children?s echolalia to be modified. Some parents want their child to be able to enjoy echolalia and others don?t want anyone to intervene because they see it as something that makes their child unique and being unique is something to be celebrated. We believe that there might be a way for speech and language services who want to modify echolalia and the parents in our study who do not want their child?s echolalia to be modified, to be able to exist side-by-side. En ligne : https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13623613231195795 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=527

Repeating purposefully: Empowering educators with functional communication models of echolalia in Autism / Eli G. COHN in Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, 7 (January-December 2022)  

Public ISBD [article]  inAutism & Developmental Language Impairments > 7 (January-December 2022) Titre : Repeating purposefully: Empowering educators with functional communication models of echolalia in Autism Type de document : Texte imprimé et/ou numérique Auteurs : Eli G. COHN, Auteur ; Keith R. MCVILLY, Auteur ; Matthew J. HARRISON, Auteur ; Lillian N. STIEGLER, Auteur Langues : Anglais (eng) Mots-clés : Echolalia  communication and language  special education  Autism spectrum disorder Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Background and AimsEcholalia, the repetition of speech, is highly prevalent in school aged children with Autism. Prior research has found that individuals with echolalia use their repetitions to engage in communicatively functional speech, in the absence of self-generated speech. Educators are the natural audience for a wide vary of echoed utterances across environments and in differing contexts. The objectives of this paper were three-fold: (1) to systematically investigate how researchers identify and ascribe communicative function to echoed utterances; (2) to gather and evaluate the evidence that might assist teachers to identify and better understand echoed utterances as being communicatively purposeful; and (3) to provide teachers with evidence-informed response strategies they can use to assist their students on their journey towards more self-generated speech.Main ContributionPrior research in the field of echolalia has generally been segmented into opposing viewpoints. A paucity of work in the echolalia field has meant that there is limited work that has sought to view how a communicative function to echolalia has been ascribed from across multiple disciplines and fields. As such, there is limited literature to guide the practice of classroom educators. This review combines communicative models from across various disciplines with the view to supporting classroom educators by providing guidance on how they might assist their students with echolalia. This review represents the first contribution to the research literature in this area.Conclusions and ImplicationsResearch into echolalia did not originally emanate from the field of education; however, anecdotes from classroom educators were cited as the primary impetus for the creation of some of the communicatively functional models. We found that although there are many techniques that researchers have used to attribute a communicative function to echolalia, some of these can be easily employed by educators in their practice. By adopting these techniques, educators are placed in a position that may assist with the identification of communicative echolalia; subsequently they are better placed to acknowledge and respond to their students. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1177/23969415221091928 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=477 [article] Repeating purposefully: Empowering educators with functional communication models of echolalia in Autism [Texte imprimé et/ou numérique] / Eli G. COHN, Auteur ; Keith R. MCVILLY, Auteur ; Matthew J. HARRISON, Auteur ; Lillian N. STIEGLER, Auteur. Langues : Anglais (eng) in Autism & Developmental Language Impairments > 7 (January-December 2022) Mots-clés : Echolalia  communication and language  special education  Autism spectrum disorder Index. décimale : PER Périodiques Résumé : Background and AimsEcholalia, the repetition of speech, is highly prevalent in school aged children with Autism. Prior research has found that individuals with echolalia use their repetitions to engage in communicatively functional speech, in the absence of self-generated speech. Educators are the natural audience for a wide vary of echoed utterances across environments and in differing contexts. The objectives of this paper were three-fold: (1) to systematically investigate how researchers identify and ascribe communicative function to echoed utterances; (2) to gather and evaluate the evidence that might assist teachers to identify and better understand echoed utterances as being communicatively purposeful; and (3) to provide teachers with evidence-informed response strategies they can use to assist their students on their journey towards more self-generated speech.Main ContributionPrior research in the field of echolalia has generally been segmented into opposing viewpoints. A paucity of work in the echolalia field has meant that there is limited work that has sought to view how a communicative function to echolalia has been ascribed from across multiple disciplines and fields. As such, there is limited literature to guide the practice of classroom educators. This review combines communicative models from across various disciplines with the view to supporting classroom educators by providing guidance on how they might assist their students with echolalia. This review represents the first contribution to the research literature in this area.Conclusions and ImplicationsResearch into echolalia did not originally emanate from the field of education; however, anecdotes from classroom educators were cited as the primary impetus for the creation of some of the communicatively functional models. We found that although there are many techniques that researchers have used to attribute a communicative function to echolalia, some of these can be easily employed by educators in their practice. By adopting these techniques, educators are placed in a position that may assist with the identification of communicative echolalia; subsequently they are better placed to acknowledge and respond to their students. En ligne : https://doi.org/10.1177/23969415221091928 Permalink : https://www.cra-rhone-alpes.org/cid/opac_css/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=477

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