Table 3.

Considerations for professional practice.

Considerations	Elaborations
Echoes are often disguised	The surface structure, or what is heard, of delayed echolalia may not reflect the meaning or purpose of the communicative attempt. Classroom educators may need to discuss these echoes with parents and other caregivers in attempts to unravel the true meaning. The true meaning can often be ascertained but will likely require a collaborative approach.
Changes to echoed utterances represents progress	When a change to a word-for-word repetition is heard, this may be understood by the educator as a developmental progression point. Adaptations to echoes may include word additions, verb changes, word substitutions, or word removals; regardless of which change is heard, progression toward more self-generated language may be evident through these echo mitigations.
Data collection through audio recording is key	Classroom educators, in attempts to monitor echolalia, should try to capture snippets of echoed utterances at frequent time intervals as a way to analyse, and discuss, ascribed meanings with other professionals and parents.
Echolalia should not be stopped	Abating echolalia may be counterintuitive given that there is limited evidence to suggest that functional language can taught after stopping echolalia. Rather, classroom educators might try to unravel and decipher echoed utterances with the view to supporting the communicative attempts of the Echolalic.