‘I'm still guessing what's happening and what I'm meant to do’: Special educator experiences of supporting echolalic students

Abstract

Echolalia has been widely examined in clinical and developmental research, yet the experiences of teachers, who arguably encounter echolalia across the widest variety of contexts and environments, remain largely unexplored. This study examined special education teachers lived experiences of echolalia in specialist schools. Using a qualitative design, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 83 special education teachers. Data was analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Five interconnected practice problems emerged: limited foundational knowledge, lack of classroom‐based strategies, inconsistent speech pathology interpretations, limited specialist presence and unclear professional roles. This study found that teachers' experiences of echolalia are not only shaped by echoes themselves, but also by the fragmented knowledge, structural constraints and ambiguous professional responsibility within special education systems.