At home, we quote.
When I do not like something, I say "I do not like green eggs and ham"
(The response is, "I do not like them Sam-I-am" and usually someone will respond with it).
Go dog go.
Stop dog stop.
Red fish, blue fish.
One fish, two fish.
Do you like my hat?
Yes, yes I like your party hat?
(Can you tell we like Dr. Seuss?* It's peppered into my daily language.)
Talking in quotes is a form of echolalia, I believe. Quoting quoting quoting. Repeating things already said, either immediately or delayed.
(This one had a little star, this one had a little car.
My what a lot of fish there are.)
We have ways we say goodbye.
"Goodbye, loooove.... Goooodbye love. Just came to say gooodbyyyyyeee love, gooodbye....."
(That was for singing at cousins. Loudly. As we chased the car down the road.)
We sing a lot. Sometimes instead of talking. Sometimes we will switch the words to fit the situations (but mostly we will just pick a song that fits the mood or emotion we want the other person to know instead and keep the original words).
Sometimes for hours, I don't use my own words. (Sometimes instead, we just rhyme all the time.) We can craft whole conversations from things already said or written once. The sentences are already made. We just have to pick them up and say them.
My whole, extended family does it.
Is it normal? (Does it matter?)
"I don't know, go ask your mother."**
~~~
*Although Go Dog Go isn't Dr. Seuss.
**That's from Hop on Pop!Labels: autistic?, cousins, echolalia, Medium Sister, my family, my parents, Small Sister, talking, words