It's very normal for ASD kids. Even typical developing kids go through a stage of repeating but ASD get kinda stuck on this stage. There's several reasons why they do it. It could be verbal self-stim, or it could be that they're replaying something in their heads. Your guy is little so you haven't yet seen that they go through different periods of "stuckness" (my new word). Don't worry, they normally move on to some new stuck thing.

Anyhow, our autism consultant says that you should take that and try to expand or modify to encourage more language. So you could make an appropriate comment about your cup. And then model him to say something appropriate.

However if your son is not speech delayed that may not be an issue.

Remember sometimes bringing to much attention to an issue will actually cause it to last longer. So keep that it mind.

My son does that as well. He repeats the same question 10 times even if we've answered him every time. He will pick out phrases and words and repeat them ad nausa especially when we engage him in converstation.

My son who is 3 does this ALL the time. If he learns a new name or whatever word he learns he will say it over and over and over and over ( ha ha ) it can be annoying but I just embrace the fact the he says a new word:)

My 4yr old does it ALL the time. He will repeat a certain word or phrase. It may be something he heard on tv, a game, during school or therapy session or something I've said. It may be something recent or even months prior. He also likes to take words and morph them so they sound silly. The average person won't understand the word, but I will since I know its origin. "Aw-dunka-fat" was once "Eww..stinky feet". I believe the correct term is 'vocal stereotypy'. Here's a short article: http://autism.healingthresholds.com/research/as...

My son's ABA skill trainer has been helpful in teaching me how to redirect his attention when he starts on the 'broken record' cycle. He also does this with random sounds as well. Did it with one sound for 3hrs one night prior to therapy starting. Nearly drove me bonkers >_<

@A MyAutismTeam Member - I think your explanation of scripting vs echolia was really useful. The fact is that repeating phrases sometimes do have communicative intent where our children are trying to tell us something. So don't just automatically assume the repeated phrases have no meaning. For my son, I can tell there's communicative intent when he looks at me more, if his tone is more intense, or if he moves closer to me. For our kids with limited language, we need to be paying attention to all their signals.

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