Echolalia, Mitigation, and Autism: Indicators from Child Characteristics for the Use of Sign Language and Other Augmentative Language Systems

Indicators of potential success or failure of language intervention programs were sought in the language skills of autistic children. Mitigation in echolalia (change in a feature of the utterance being repeated) is identified as a critical characteristic. Because mitigated echolalia implies that the prerequisites for language are accessible through speech, it is here suggested that children with mitigated echolalia, or higher level language, are those most likely to benefit from therapies centered on spoken language. Children whose speech ranged from mutism to unmitigated (exact) echolalia have a more negative prognosis with speech-oriented therapies. An augmentative communication system (e.g. simultaneous communication, Blissymbolics) is indicated, particularly for this group of children with limited language skills. However, an even broader application of such systems is recommended to maximize the efficiency of intervention efforts with autistic children.