My 6yo son repeating what he just said in a whisper...

[SandraDumas]

Okay this is bizarre. My 6yo son is in this bizarre habit of saying to me, the end of what he just said, in a slight whisper, almost like he's practicing, or talking to himself. But the WEIRDEST thing is...he doesn't even know he's doing it!!

So for instance:

"Mom, may I go play with my legos now?, legos now.

He will say the last part in such an inaudible whisper that it took me almost a week to pinpoint what he was doing.

My son is so weird! I told him this is odd behavior that is not socially acceptable, and he needs to stop doing it.

He's not practicing, like someone who is unsure of what he's saying. It's not that because he does it almost all the time, with any sentence he says.

Do you think there is a connection between this and me letting him play by himself in his room for hours, making his toys "talk to each other" as in...is he talking to himself??

[Jill, OK]

The term for it is 'pallilia' (I *think* that's how you spell it), and it's a vocal tic.

*But*...just because a young child develops a vocal tic, doesn't necessarily mean they have a disorder (Tourette's, etc.).

I'd just gently encourage him to try and catch himself doing it, and keep an eye on it. He may grow out of it, or you may need to mention it the next time he's in, for a check-up.

[gardenschooler]

Okay this is bizarre. My 6yo son is in this bizarre habit of saying to me, the end of what he just said, in a slight whisper, almost like he's practicing, or talking to himself. But the WEIRDEST thing is...he doesn't even know he's doing it!!

So for instance:

"Mom, may I go play with my legos now?, legos now.

He will say the last part in such an inaudible whisper that it took me almost a week to pinpoint what he was doing.

My son is so weird! I told him this is odd behavior that is not socially acceptable, and he needs to stop doing it.

He's not practicing, like someone who is unsure of what he's saying. It's not that because he does it almost all the time, with any sentence he says.

Do you think there is a connection between this and me letting him play by himself in his room for hours, making his toys "talk to each other" as in...is he talking to himself??

My neice did this around the age of 7 or 8, and it completely freaked my sister out. My neice outgrew it pretty quickly, though. Just wanted to let you know your ds isn't the only one.

[SandraDumas]

okay I'm calm now. Really. My new screen name was going to be Calming Tea but my dh did my registration....

Anyway, I will talk with him about keeping an eye on himself and also mention it to our ped if he's still doing it next week when he has his checkup. Thanks for the tip!!

[Scarlett]

EXACTLY the way you described! I posted about it once about 6-9 months ago on the other boards...it is soooooooooooo odd! I am so happy that another mother has actually experienced the same thing! He will be 8 in about a month and has been doing it for nearly a year I think.

[Sue in TX]

I have a very advanced dd6 and she started doing that right after she turned 6 yrs old. At first I didn't know what to do, but for me- I chose to just whisper a question to her about what I heard her whisper. For example:

When she whispers "I want to play legos." (whispers "play legos")
Then I whisper "What will you build?" or "Me too."
She caught on after a while- b/c at first she was totally unaware of her own whisper- and it kind of stopped for a while. She will do it off and on but it doesn't happen very often any more.

I noticed she did it more when she was using bigger words or speaking about more complex things- so I thought that it was just a perfectionist kind of thing- though that is just my guess....

Sue

[Scarlett]

I tried to get him to exlain why he does it and he said something along the lines of he is just 'listening' to his words in his head....like he is just rolling the words around quietly to himself...I'm not explaining it very well.

I asked him just now if he knows he does that and he said, 'I don't do it anymore.' :) But he does.

I wish I knew what it meant.

[Katia]

My youngest dd used to do this all the time. She did it for years. I never paid any attention to it at all. Just figured it was "her". It was cute. She was a little kid.

Now she is 15yo and no problems whatsoever (well, except for large booKs, but I don't think that has anything to do with her speech, lol). It never occurred to me to worry about it or call it to her attention or think she might have a disorder. I just accept my dc for who and what they are. I never wanted them to feel self-conscious about themselves or to feel I was criticizing them, especially for something they have no idea they are doing. One day it will be gone and you'll forget he ever did it until someone posts about it and you'll remember.

[Jill, OK]

...and I know you would probably guess this, but if it's truly a tic, it's involuntary; he may not be able to completely stop it, so I'd keep the mentioning of it low-key and *infrequent*. (Stress can aggravate it, but if you bring it to his attention gently, he might be able to identify triggers, or divert his behavior to something more socially appropriate).

You can (and should) Google for more info, just in case, but generally, I think the rule of thumb is if it lasts more than a year, or doesn't stop for a certain period of time (3 mos. or something), then it classifies as a tic 'disorder'.

Plenty of kids get them, and they disappear, without parents intervening or saying anything. In the event that it isn't something that's grown out of, though, it can be helpful for a child to develop a self-awareness of triggers.

[JudoMom]

Do you think there is a connection between this and me letting him play by himself in his room for hours, making his toys "talk to each other" as in...is he talking to himself??

I remember there being talk of this on the old board a long time ago, but I know nothing about it.

I just wanted to reassure you that it is perfectly normal for your son to have his toys talk to each other! My boys do it all the time, even when they're surrounded by their brothers. A couple of mine even simply make their hands talk to each other in some sort of fantasy world if they have no toys around. So on the scale of normal boyhood behavior---I'd rank this as pretty normal :D.

[Scarlett]

My youngest dd used to do this all the time. She did it for years. I never paid any attention to it at all. Just figured it was "her". It was cute. She was a little kid.

Now she is 15yo and no problems whatsoever (well, except for large booKs, but I don't think that has anything to do with her speech, lol). It never occurred to me to worry about it or call it to her attention or think she might have a disorder. I just accept my dc for who and what they are. I never wanted them to feel self-conscious about themselves or to feel I was criticizing them, especially for something they have no idea they are doing. One day it will be gone and you'll forget he ever did it until someone posts about it and you'll remember.

It is not that I want to make him feel bad about it or anything...but it just falls into a category of VERY strange TO ME. Which means almost nothing, doncha know. I mostly want to understand WHY he does it or WHAT it means....my ds is fairly advanced too...and I can't help having a panic attack wondering if it is the onset of some neurological disorder. You can't know how good it makes me feel to hear you say your ddtotally grew out of it.

[Scarlett]

My ds7 talks to himself (and other characters he has created in and out of his head) all of the time.

I wonder if it is more common with advanced kids?

I mean the repeating things in a whisper...well, the talking to oneself too I guess.

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

Nah, not so strange.

Quirky, but not strange.

Mine were typically a bit stressed when they did that, or about to achieve some milestone like more fluent reading or writing or music ability. But it wasn't a big deal. We teased them lightly about it and moved on. I'm just waiting for the little one to do it. I think it's right around the corner. Right now she's incessently practicing talking while breathing out AND while breathing in. Amazingly annoying. But not strange. :)

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

LOL, with a lot of that stuff, I think it's mostly just them being six or seven, you know? Not a little kid, not a big kid. Just trying things out.

[Jenn in Mo]

Both of my sons do this! I thought it was weird, but just weird enough to tease them about not weird enough to worry about. If someone had mentioned the word tic to me I'd have been worrying - lol! I'm glad I hadn't heard it 'back when.'

They both still do it, but only rarely.

I'm so curious about what the cause is now. They are both advanced too. Strange stuff. No idea what the source of it is then?

[Jill, OK]

...because of the huge number of kids that develop something similar, and then outgrow it. (As Pam and Katia's kids did).

But I would inform myself about the various possibilities, so that I could watch for other symptoms, because it *can* be something more.

[Scarlett]

Well, if you google that word 'pallilia' you get all sorts of scary stuff associated with Tourettes and LD. Then if you are like me you break out into a cold sweat thinking the sky is falling. Thank God for reassuring people on this board who remind me/ Sandra that we all have our quirks. For instance, I 'type' out words onto the nearest surface. My knees, my dh's leg...wherever.... It annoys dh to no end, so I've learned to control it when I need to.

[Kelli in TN]

My husband does the repeating thing. I always thought it just went along with his stutter/stammer issues. He will repeat whole sentences or parts of sentences to himself. He especially does it when he is saying something that he thinks is funny.

I ignore it now, but have to admit I found it unusual when we were dating.

[SandraDumas]

You ladies have all blessed me with your information, encouragement, and experience.

Thanks for the heads up on the toys-talking-to-each-other thing, too.

I will stop telling him it's weird (bad mom of the year award there!) and just watch and see what happens.

My son does have mild PDD and Sensory Integration and a few aspergers-like symptoms, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that when I googled this, I came across autism. I think I did enough research for today and I'll keep an eye and mention it to my dr.

Katia, thanks for the info about your dd. My ds is definitely an in-his-head, intellectual, imaginative sort. I picture him reading lots of books too. LOL

[SandraDumas]

reassurance.

I find it interesting that I'm having a hard time with my son across the board and he's also just-turned-six and going through a huge growth spurt (again!). I wonder if next month he'll suddenly take off in reading or something. Interesting to note.

He is having more sensitivities, more sensory things, a lot of trouble being mean, less eye contact and a very hard time listening, and focusing. We went through similar things before when he was early five, and I worked on those things and also took a more relaxed parenting approach overall and they worked themselves out. Now I find it interesting that at another age milestone they are all coming out in different ways again!

[Jennifer in MI]

My ds did this too. He is now 7 1/2 and he's outgrown it. I had no idea he was doing it either. His brothers were good enough to tease him mercilessly, so he had great motivation for stopping the habit!!

[Lady Katherine]

Our late, great ADD doctor (yes, you've heard me mention him a thousand times, and probably will again; but he changed my entire life by teaching me how to understand my kids) said this about tics:

Everyone has what he called a "tic threshold." Some kids have very low threshold (such as with Tourettes's); their tics are triggered very easily, sometimes constantly. Others have a high threshold so you will rarely see tics. But if you put ANYONE under enough stress, you will see tics begin to emerge.

For example, When I'm very tired, my eyelids twitch. That means I've reached my tic threshold. After a good night's rest, it goes away.

It's completely involuntary and often the child doesn't have any idea he is doing it. I wouldn't worry about it unless it begins to interfere with his normal daily routine or with relationships. Then I'd ask a doctor.

[Jill, OK]

....my daughter has *many* of the same 'quirks' you describe your son having, and I think that many times, they simply overlap. And make navigating issues a little more murky or stressful.

And I will emphasize *again* that it's probably nothing. As many have said, it's more likely than not that he'll outgrow it.

[SandraDumas]

Thanks Lady Katherine, that is helpful.

I "have" ADD and I think my poor son has inherited both my husband's brilliance intensity, and my intensity and stubbornness, and possibly my ADD and has a nice mix of PDD to throw in there. It's amazing he's as normal as he is!

[Michelle T]

he would whisper-repeat things other people said to him, not only what he himself just said. So a conversation with him was quite strange, between his whispering what he had said, and whispering what I replied.

He did this for at least a year, probably longer. I'm thinking this was around age nine. He's 11.5 now, and doesn't do it anymore.

My guy definitely has issues though. He is certainly ADHD, has fairly severe LD's, and was diagnosed as autistic when he was younger, although he no longer meets criteria for that diagnosis.
Michelle T

[mcconnellboys]

Yeah, it might just be a little obsessive/compulsive thingy.....

Regena

[Jenn in Mo]

"just an obsessive compulsive thing"

People - I'm the queen of paranoia! I wasn't worried about this at all 3 days ago! Don't help me invent things to worry about! LOL!

[GreenKitty]

Okay this is bizarre. My 6yo son is in this bizarre habit of saying to me, the end of what he just said, in a slight whisper, almost like he's practicing, or talking to himself. But the WEIRDEST thing is...he doesn't even know he's doing it!!

So for instance:

"Mom, may I go play with my legos now?, legos now.

He will say the last part in such an inaudible whisper that it took me almost a week to pinpoint what he was doing.

My son is so weird! I told him this is odd behavior that is not socially acceptable, and he needs to stop doing it.

He's not practicing, like someone who is unsure of what he's saying. It's not that because he does it almost all the time, with any sentence he says.

Do you think there is a connection between this and me letting him play by himself in his room for hours, making his toys "talk to each other" as in...is he talking to himself??


You are deffinately not alone. There are several other children out there who do the same thing. A good friend of mine is a speech therapist and sees this alot. They give it the name 'palilia' among others if it is something more extreme or there are other behaviors that go along with it. If you are really concerned you can talk to your Dr about it, they most generally reffer you to a specialist to just check it out. Also, most children do not even know they are doing this. I was told that you are not to keep point it out, that may actually make the child do it more often.

I personally don't see any connection to him playing in his room by himself talking to the toys...but that's just me.

[Night Elf]

My son does have mild PDD and Sensory Integration and a few aspergers-like symptoms, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that when I googled this, I came across autism.

This was what I was going to say Sandra. You've mentioned your son was diagnosed with Asperger's on the old board, or so I thought. I remember responding to a few of your messages because I have an 11 year old boy with Asperger's Syndrome. We didn't have a formal diagnosis until he was 9 years old. My son has pallilia right now. I say 'right now' because his tics come and go. He always has something going on, but it isn't the same thing all the time. The worst tic was his hair pulling. He actually pulled his hair out of the crown of his head and had a bald spot. From a distance it looked like he was wearing a yarmulke (the small crown cap that Jewish guys wear). He's also done things like finger formations (twisting his fingers and hands in different formations, rapid pacing, hand flapping, throat clearing, high pitched squeals, excessive eye blinking, hand washing, just to name a few. or several. *laugh* The longest any of them has lasted is about 3 months. He never has more than one or two at a time.

I hope I don't get flamed but I feel you always post things about your son without mentioning his PDD. To someone who has no idea about PDD, the behaviors might seem weird, abnormal, or worse, something to be disciplined. When they are seen in the autistic world, no matter where on the spectrum, they are not abnormal behaviors that need to be corrected. They are part of the spectrum. There are some things you can do. For example, when my son was doing the hair pulling, I made sure he always had some kind of items in his hands at all times. If he had a hand free, he would unconsciously twist his hair which pulled it. It took a few weeks, but we managed to get him off that tic and onto a different one. His tics don't really bother me now that I understand what they are, but the hair pulling thing was something that was physically affecting his life so I had to step in and help him with it. Anyway, it's just my observation that you seem to have a rough time with this son's behaviors and so far all the ones I've seen you mention can be attributed to his PDD. Just FWIW.

[Scarlett]

I hope I don't get flamed but I feel you always post things about your son without mentioning his PDD. Just FWIW.

What is PDD?

[mcconnellboys]

I'm sorry! O/C runs in my family, so I don't think it's that big a deal. Not everyone who has O/C has such difficulties that they can't function. My younger son is the worst I know of in our family and he's still perfectly operational. He just takes some managing at home sometimes, LOL. For instance, when they were repainting our house, my husband had to take apart some things in our guest bath and left the drill lying around for a few days afterward (as usual). Ds just couldn't keep away from trying out that drill, on my newly painted walls, every chance he got.....oy.... I TOLD dh to put that drill out of site! Then ds even tried drilling using a pencil on the upstairs hall. Luckily it hadn't been repainted yet....

Didn't mean to scare you though. I just take O/C as part of life, like all the other little quirks that can be wrapped up on folks,

Regena

[PrairieAir]

I agree with what Night Elf said. I read this thread right after reading about the same son confessing to breaking his sister's necklaces because he doesn't like girly things and the combination sent up red flags for me. I wondered if he might have PDD because those seem like things I've seen other kids with PDD do. It's no big deal that you didn't mention it, it's just that some of us are probably reading and making a mental diagnosis which you already know about. It's the kind of thing you might be alarmed about if you did not already have that diagnosis, but having it you can understand the root of the behavior and work on it without being quite so alarmed:)

Someone asked what PDD is. It stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Here's a link. http://www.childbrain.com/pddq1.shtml

[Chris in VA]

Sandra,
Have you had him checked for Asperger's? I totally agree it could be just something to outgrow, and, even if he is Aspie, nothing to get worked up about. There's plenty of support, even for Aspies.

I have a child who's now 18 and exhibited some Aspie behaviour. He was diagnosed just with Automatic Processing Disorder--we did a neuropsych when he was 6. It's just hard sometimes, but this child has grown to be a wonderful person. He is very helpful, never got into drugs or alcohol, is learning to express his feelings, loves to read, can be quite tender to me, and wants to do great things in his life (currently, become a director and make movies that touch people).

This is just to say, even if you find yourself travelling down a different road than you thought you'd travel with your child, it doesn't mean the way you must take is to be one filled with despair. There is great joy, no matter which road presents itself, and we know where we are going in the end, don't we? Like Much Afraid in Hind's Feet on High Places, I often find myself travelling with Grace and Glory when I thought only Sorrow and Suffering were accompanying me. And, after all, He knows the way that I take, and He will whisper in my ear when to turn left and when to turn right.

You will be ok, and so will your little boy.

Praying for strength from God, great patience, and extra love.

Chris

[Old Dominion Heather]

I used to do this... I outgrew it. My mom would echo me when I did it, which embarrassed:o me, so I am not really recommending that. I think I echoed myself for about three months when I was six or seven.

[Tutor]

My 11yo dd does this periodically... more often when she is stressed or in an uncertain social situation (especially within hearing of adults she doesn't know well). We have been told that it is a form of stutter that she will most likely grow out of. There are therapies available but they are not always effective. We were told to discuss it with her when it wasn't happening and have her try to listen for it. We did, and she did notice it. She said it happens most when she's nervous or excited, but if she stops to think before she speaks, it usually doesn't happen. If she thinks about the stutter too much, it gets worse. We had a neighbor with a more traditional stutter, and she said the same was true for her (if she thought about it, it was worse).

That's all the info I have been given. Glad you have received some encouragement from others.

[Sue G in PA]

We would point it out to her every time and she would just get mad. I would go as far as mimicking her (don't do that!) b/c I just thought it was a bad habit! Like, my ds9 hops when he walks. He takes a few steps, hops, takes a few more and hops again. We call him "Hippity" and once when his tennis shoes squeaked we called him "Hippity Squeak!". BTW, dd11 eventually stopped of her own accord. Thank God! It was really annoying.