Echoic and self-echoic responses in children.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Echoic responding is a foundational verbal behavior.
• Self-echoic responding, or repeating one's own verbalizations, is crucial for developing complex behaviors.
• Previous research compared echoic and self-echoic scores in autistic and typically developing children with a 2-s delay.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the accuracy of prompted self-echoic responses in typically developing children following a 5-s delay.
• To compare findings with previous research (Esch et al., 2010) by analyzing age, test level, and discrepancy scores.
• To explore the relationship between self-echoic performance and developmental factors.

Main Methods:

• Eleven typically developing children participated.
• Prompted self-echoic responses were assessed after a 5-second delay from the initial echoic response.
• Data were compared to a previous study with a 2-second delay, focusing on age, test level, and echoic/self-echoic discrepancy scores.

Main Results:

• Statistically significant differences were found in age and test level between the current study and the referenced study.
• Self-echoic performance varied based on participant age and the level of testing.
• Discrepancy scores between echoic and self-echoic responses were analyzed in relation to developmental variables.

Conclusions:

• Age and test level are significant factors influencing self-echoic response accuracy.
• Self-echoic rehearsal plays a role in the development of complex behaviors.
• Understanding these variables is crucial for analyzing developmental trajectories in verbal behavior.