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.
