What Are Some Of The Signs Of Odd Language Use In A Person With Autism?

Oct. 23, 2008 -- Question: What are some of the signs of odd language use in a person with autism?

Answer: In people with autism, their language abnormalities kind of take two forms. One is the content of the language and the other is the style of the language.

So, we may have language behaviors like echolalia, which is repeating things that were just said or repeating things that they've heard previously, and it could be dialogues from movies, it could be conversations that they hear at home often.

And another aspect is the style, meaning how they use their words and their intonation and their inflection and the volume of their speech. So some children may have a sing-songy voice. Others may talk in a very loud voice and be unable to modulate it.

So, those are some examples of those characteristics.