#gestalt language processing

[sadhoc]

i'm trying to find a way to articulate this but like. imagine that until you're about 6-7 (lol), you don't have a reliable way to communicate with anyone outside your family. you can understand maybe 50-60% of what people at preschool or elementary school say to you, but none of them can understand what you say back to them. they sort of herd you around and stop you from doing things and try to get you to do worksheets and come out from under the table. but they don't understand what you're saying to them. and you are saying things. you're making what you're sure are the right sounds in the right order to get the things you want. but to them it's all wrong and they don't understand it, and they think you want something else, or that you're being bad or wrong or a copier or a smartass.

and then you learn how to work with the right units of sound (words) and you figure it out over the course of about a year how to make sentences that other people understand.

but you don't ever forget the kind of hostility or misunderstanding that everyone around you had.

[scurvgirl]

I love talking about my field, so let me talk about something I think a good number of folks here might benefit from! Gestalt Language Processing. That's a bunch of big words that basically mean "learning language through larger units/chunks vs learning individual words and smaller units". In what has been described as typical language development, a baby will develop sounds, that then turn into words, then learn more words, then over time combine words to make phrases, then sentences, and so forth. This is the bottom-up approach. Gestalt Language Processing is top-down. This is when a unit is learned when it is meaningful to the learner and can vary in length. It could be "more!", it could also be the entire first verse of the song Wheels on the Bus - as one unit!

Wait, how is that possible? How can a kid go from barely talking to saying or trying to say "Wheels on the bus go round and round" as a unit? Through echolalia! Kids will use echolalia to learn and use these language units to communicate.

Echolalia - don't autistic kids do that? Yep! Gestalt Language Processors (GLP) are often autistic! Lots of my autistic clients are also GLPs and that means they have a good bit of echolalia and I use that strength (because echolalia is a communicative strength, we WANT repetition) to help build more phrase/gestalt diversity to communicate. For example, today, a client used "ready, set, go!" as a gestalt phrase throughout play. Love that, what a great little phrase. We were playing with a ball, and I want him to be able to specifically request a ball in the future and "ready, set, go" doesn't fulfill that need. So, I model "Oh! A ball!" with strong intonation whenever I saw the ball/picked up the ball. Over time, he echoed my intonation. That's how a gestalt begins to form!

The key to a gestalt is meaning. If the phrase isn't important to the learner...it won't be learned. This also means that very meaningful pieces of language can be learned and what is meaningful is based on the learner. So you will see kids repeating the same phrase, in the same way, from their favorite movie. They could repeat it as a request or to describe something. I've had a client point to all blue things and go "Sonic movie! Sonic movie!"

So, do you find yourself learning language in chunks? Repeating phrases from media you love as closely to the original media? You might be a Gestalt Language Processor! And that's awesome!

Source: I am an ASHA certified and fully licensed Speech Language Pathologist who works in pediatrics with neurodivergent children. I love my job. I love my clients. I love my field.

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

i need to merge there theyre and their, having different spellings for these 3 words is driving me nuts

is my Gestalt Processing giving me an Unhinged take about spelling reform again? fine i dont care

[maculategiraffe]

the baby learned the phrase "pick you up" as a concept in itself rather than as three separate words. as in "do you want me to pick-you-up?" "should I pick-you-up?" "I'm gonna pick-you-up." so now when he wants to be picked up he will hold up his arms and say "bi-you-up." attempts to correct this to "pick me up" meet with annoyed stares as he clearly thinks we are being unnecessarily pedantic. linguistically fascinating

[whatsupwalnut]

Today at recess my student was under the bigtoy and kept saying something like "undersea game" and finally i heard "it's leaking" and sure enough something was dripping down and that's how we figured out another student had overflowed their diaper which is functional gestalt language processing in action thank you!!!

[plushiesandpetrichor]

My keyboard came unplugged and instead of simply asking for help, all my brain would say is "Help..my son, he is very sick" and I'm literally crying from laughing so hard xD I think I've repeated it at least 20 times

[libraryqueer]

Super obnoxious when people act like they have the monopoly on evidence-based practice and don't even know how to fully consider the scope of the evidence base. The research on gestalt language processing and how to support language learning for autistic people is EVERYWHERE. Like, I'd be happy to show you where in the research it says that many children communicate with large chunks of language (echolalia). Where it says that effective therapy is both relevant and engaging to the client. Where it says that modeling language to fit a variety of communication functions and creating naturalistic communication opportunities is beneficial. Beyond peer-reviewed research, I'll throw in my own clinical experiences and knowledge of autistic perspectives, since clinical experiences and client perspectives are also two entire sides of the EBP triangle (which I've only ever seen depicted as an equilateral).

Now show me where it says that decontextualized language intervention is generalizable enough to support functional communication. Where it says that prompt-based "teaching" methodologies don't frequently create prompt-dependence that precludes the ability to use the skill functionally. Where it says that teaching children who communicate primarily through echolalia a series of single words and rote phrases is effective. I'll wait. In the meantime, consider that actual nuanced understanding of the body of evidence with regard to language development and autism is perhaps more significant than your keyword search.

[p-idgey]

Being a gestalt language processor is a fucking trip. What do you mean i hear the word rizz i am hit over the head with the phrase "with rizz" said in a particular manner, in a scandinavian accent, and then, to avoid spending all day repeating that phrase because it will certainly get stuck in my head the way that songs do (and looking insane because the character of the th to the R sounds in that accent is foreign to my mouth) i have to comb my memory for every scandinavian i have heard speak to discover that it was maia arson crimew discussing hacking via being convincing on the phone on the cybersecurity episode of well theres your problem.