"Shadow speaking"

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Some time ago, I found a podcast of an interview that Peter Gzowski did for CBC Radio with Donna Williams, around the time she published her book, "Nobody Nowhere." During the interview, Donna mentioned that she had a talent for repeating somebody's words the instant that the person said them, which talent she called "shadow speaking." I found that quite astonishing, because it was something I had been able to do for a long time. In my case, I would listen to Blue Jays baseball games on the radio, and repeat what one of the play-by-play announcers (previously Tom Cheek, now Alan Ashby) would say while they were still talking. It's not something I can do 100% of the time, but I can do it enough that somebody else might get freaked out by it. Still, Gzowski was astounded that Donna could do this, as if he couldn't do it himself.

My question is, is this talent common to Aspies, or can anybody do this with practice?

As a child I could repeat back entire fairytale stories, word for word, after hearing it once but I don't know if it's the same as what you're referring to. I think I was more classically autistic though too. I still retain everything I see and hear pretty much but not to that degree as when I was a child. I just tend not to forget things.

I think it would take great focus and concentration, honing in on one word at a time as it was spoken and repeating it in a fraction of a second without paying attention to context or anticipating what words would be next which would be the normal approach to listening. A detailed approach to listening instead of a whole approach. I suppose it could be learned by someone with an interest in learning it, but it would definitely be easier for someone with excellent concentration skills and ability to block out interference.

Is this something NTs have difficulty doing?

I can't imagine why someone would do it, it's second nature for me, not very practical for an NT.

This is quite often the only way I can hear people. Sometimes I will reply "What?" with no clue as to what was spoken, only to rerun it in my mind or speaking (minus cognizance) aloud and say, "Oh." I listen to most things spoken with this delay. I assume it must be an ASD trait? Without it, I often have no hope in awareness of the spoken word.

I used to do that when I was really little, I would whisper back people said or I would repeat in a whisper EVERYTHING I said.
And people asked why I kept repeating myself.
I can't shadow speak. But I can remember word for word what people have said.
Sometimes full conversations if it was an interesting conversation, but I don't repeat them anymore.