text: Imitation and learning Echolalia is common in young children who are first learning to speak. Echolalia is a form of imitation. Imitation is a useful, normal and necessary component of social learning: imitative learning occurs when the "observer acquires new behaviors through imitation" and mimicry or automatic imitation occurs when a "reenacted behavior is based on previously acquired motor (or vocal) patterns". Ganos et al (2012) define echolalia as an "automatic imitative action without explicit awareness". Children often first babble syllables and eventually words they hear. For example, a baby may often hear the word "bottle" in various sentences. The baby first repeats with only syllables such as "baba" but as their language skills progress the child will eventually be able to say the word "bottle". Echolalia becomes less and less common as a child's language skills develop. It is not possible to distinguish the imitative learning form of echolalia that occurs as part of normal development from automatic imitation or echolalia characteristic of a disorder until about the age of three, when some ability for self-regulation is developed. A disorder may be suspected if automatic imitation persists beyond the age of three.
  Function
  Before the 1980s, echolalia was regarded as negative, non-functional behavior. However, researchers such as Barry Prizant and colleagues have emphasized the communicative function of echolalia. Among the communicative functions noted are turntaking, requesting, self-regulation and rehearsal to aid comprehension. Echolalia can be categorized as communicative (in context and with "apparent communicative purpose") vs. semicommunicative (an "unclear communicative meaning").