hi there, i'm waiting for my daughters first ASD assessment in august. she's 6 and has some significant communication problems and there's been echolalia for a while. but after what seemed like an improvement she's now doing loads and coming up with sentences that are nearly ALL echolalia. not so much stuff she's heard off the telly now, its mostly things she's heard me or others say in the past. but its really hard to know what she's trying to say as a lot of it is random phrases stuck together in sentence form. sometimes i really despair. any tips on how to communicate? it causes frustration for both of us.
i tend to say 'im not sure what you mean, can you think of a different way to tell me?' and be positive about it although sometimes i've resorted to saying 'hmmmm, right' which is a bit slack. although a lot of what she says doesnt make sense (to me anyway), she is quite vocal and i think she'd be offended if i asked her to draw what she means.
she's got no diagnosis yes but i'd be very surprised if she doesnt get a positive diagnosis. it would be great if any of you out there could give me some pointers!