text: Signs and symptoms Echolalia can be categorized as either immediate (occurring immediately after the stimulus) or delayed (some time after the occurrence of a stimulus). Immediate echolalia results from quick recall of information from the short-term memory and "superficial linguistic processing". A typical pediatric presentation of immediate echolalia might be as follows: a child is asked "Do you want dinner?"; the child echoes back "Do you want dinner?", followed by a pause, and then a response, "Yes. What's for dinner?" In delayed echolalia the patient repeats words, phrases, or multiple sentences after a delay that can be anywhere from hours to years later. Immediate echolalia can be indicative that a developmental disorder exists, but this is not necessarily the case. Sometimes echolalia can be observed when an individual echoes back a statement to indicate they are contemplating a response and fully heard the original statement.
  Mitigated echolalia refers to a repetition in which the original stimulus is somewhat altered, and ambient echolalia refers to the repetition (typically occurring in individuals with dementia) of environmental stimuli such as a television program running in the background.
  Examples of mitigated echolalia are pronoun changes or syntax corrections. The first can be seen in the example of asking the patient "Where are you going?" and with patient responding "Where am I going?" The latter would be seen in the clinician asking "Where are I going?" and the patient repeating "Where am I going?" In mitigated echolalia some language processing is occurring. Mitigated echolalia can be seen in dyspraxia and aphasia of speech.