Paper short abstract:

Through combined linguistic, discourse and acoustic analyses, this study of the spontaneous communication of three children with autism shows that echolalia may serve as an interactional resource by which the affected child pursues contextually appropriate social actions and marks different epistemic and affective stances towards his interlocutors.

Paper long abstract:

The repetition of the speech of others or oneself often constitutes a considerable portion of the early speech of those children with autism who develop language. Traditionally referred to as echolalia, such proclivity to repeat has been conceived of as an automatic behavior that bears no or minimal communicative function and compromises intersubjectivity.

Through an innovative integrated methodology, which combines linguistic, discourse and acoustic analyses, this study of the spontaneous communication of three children with autism shows that echoes may serve as an interactional resource by which the affected child not solely pursues contextually appropriate social actions but also remarks upon the borrowed status of his echo, whether through aligning with or distancing himself from its source.

More specifically, we demonstrate that (1) immediate echoes are not automatic responses entailing minimal cognitive processing and emotional resonance. Rather, they accomplish a range of interactional goals by being delivered at differing time onsets, and with distinctive prosodic contours. (2) Delayed echoes, which present variations in pitch and voice quality that qualify them as ventriloquations, are employed systematically to mark different epistemic and affective stances.

The children in our study thus deploy linguistic and prosodic resources to dispel the uncertainty that commonly results from their proclivity to use repetitive and formulaic speech, which often baffles their interlocutors.

This study prompts us to go beyond a symptomatic characterization of echolalia in autism to acknowledge the complex interactional work that affected children accomplish through echoing. It also invites appreciation of the insights that fine-grained qualitative analysis of talk-in-interaction can offer to the study of autistic communication.