From Echolalia and Scripting to Original Speech: Top Strategies for Gestalt Language Processors

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Speech and Language Kids Podcast 27 min 1 speaker 2 chapters transcribed 2 days ago

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What are Gestalt Language Processors and why do they repeat whole scripts?

Carrie Clark 0:00

My child isn't talking yet, but he can sing songs or repeat lines or scripts from movies. Or my child simply repeats what everyone else says. These are the kinds of things that I hear from parents of children who are learning language differently. See, it turns out there's two main ways that children learn language. Some children learn language one word at a time, while other children learn language in chunks. By repeating whole sentences or even full scripts that they have heard elsewhere. And these children are called gestalt language processors. I am speech language pathologist Carrie Clark, and on today's episode of the Speech and Language Kids podcast, I'm going to share my top six steps for helping those gestalt language processors find their voice.

Carrie Clark 0:47

Now, this is a topic that I have been getting a lot. Of questions about lately, and some of that is because of the content that I have been posting over on speechandlanguagekids.com. So I wanted to make sure that we talked about it here on the podcast because uh GLPs or gestalt language processors, this is a thing that I had been seeing for years and didn't have the words to describe what it was that I was noticing, and so as soon as I started to hear the this terminology and hear people discussing this type of Children. It really clicked for me. Um, and so it's not something new in terms of a new behavior that we're seeing in children. It's that we are starting to recognize it, which is really super fun.

Carrie Clark 1:30

And basically, it's we're saying that there's nothing wrong with these kids. It's not that there's a problem, it's that they're learning language differently. And if we acknowledge that, then we can look at different strategies that will better support these students. students. Okay. So if you would like to see any of the show notes or the links that I'm going to talk about on today's podcast episode, you can go to speech and language kids dot com slash GLP dash podcast. All right. Yeah. Okay, also don't forget to check out the Speech and Language Kids Hub if you haven't done that yet. I have added a ton of new content over the last couple of weeks. We have new therapy plans for a whole bunch of skills, such as multiple meaning words, narratives, uh temporal and quantitative concepts.

Carrie Clark 2:16

And I even just did a um therapy plan for cluttering. Which is a type of disfluency. And so we've got lots of really good new stuff in there. Uh also we have courses and kits for RGLPs as well. So if you want to learn more about Gestalt language processors and how to support them, we've got all that inside the hub as well. And I also am live inside the hub right now as I'm doing this recording. So welcome to all of you who are with me live and thank you for. working through some tech issues with uh with me at the beginning, but hopefully we'll be able to get through this. All right. Lauren, I see that you're wanting links and I'll give you those at the end of this, because that link that I just mentioned isn't live yet.

Carrie Clark 2:57

It will be live once this goes out for the recording. Okay. Alright, so you know I love to start with a story, and the story I want to tell today is about my children, my own children's first words. So my older son, James, his first word was up because he loved being held, he loved being picked up, and he always wanted to cuddle. Now, my younger son is two and a half years younger than his brother, so by the time he was starting to talk. He was, uh, I had a three-year-old who was always on the move, never stopped. And so my youngest son was always in the ki the baby carrier or the wrap or in some way attached to my body. And his first word was down. So I love that that that my oldest was up and my youngest was down, and that perfectly described them at that age.

Carrie Clark 3:50

But that is not the only way that children learn language. They don't always learn it one word at a time. First word stories are really fun, but sometimes your first word is, I walked my dog in Kansas City last night. True story, that was one one that I know. Um, and so sometimes they come out as whole chunks or whole phrases or even whole scripts that they've heard somewhere.

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Chapters

2 chapters

1 What are Gestalt Language Processors and why do they repeat whole scripts? 0:00–27:29 2 How can parents identify if their child is a Gestalt Language Processor? 27:29–27:53

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1 identified

Carrie Clark 25 min

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Topics in this episode

James 1 Michael 1 Speech and Language Kids podcast 1 Carrie Clark 1 Madeline 1 May 1 speechandlanguagekids.com 1 GLP 4 delayed echolalia 1 echolalia 1 Sophie Ann 1 Redika 1

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Recorded27 Jan 2025

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Show notes

From Echolalia and Scripting to Original Speech: Top Strategies for Gestalt Language Processors“My child isn’t talking yet but he can sing songs or repeat lines/scripts from movies.” Or… “My child simply repeats what everyone else says.” These are the kinds of things I hear from parents of children who are learning language…. ….differently. See, it turns out there are two main ways that children learn language. Some children learn language one word at a time. Other children, learn language in chunks by repeating whole sentences or scripts that they hear elsewhere. These children are called Gestalt Language Processors. I’m speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark and on today’s episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m going to share my top 6 steps for helping those gestalt language processors find their voice. Listen to the Podcast Here You can listen to the full podcast episode below: What are Gestalt Language Processors?Children who learn language in chunks or scripts known as “gestalts”. They may repeat entire phrases, sentences, or scripts that they have heard from other places. These still have meaning to them but it may not be the same meaning as the specific words would lead you to believe. Signs that a Child May be a GLP:Here’s where it gets tricky: if a child isn’t speaking much (or at all), it can be hard to tell which way they are learning language. Here are some signs you may be working with a GLP (and therefore want to model more language chunks instead of single words): Melodic way of speaking with a lot of variation in intonation (even if you can’t understand the words) Tend to say things the same way every time Like to sing songs Love categories of language, like farm animals, shapes, letters, numbers, etc. Like to play the same way every time or re-enact scenes GLP Strategy 1: Become a Detective!Often the gestalts that children are saying are trying to convey something other than what the words literally mean. For example, a child who says “do you wanna build a snowman” may not be trying to tell us about snowmen at all. Maybe they are remembering how they saw that movie with their grandma and they want to talk about her instead. Pay attention to the things the child is saying and try to guess what the actual meaning may be. Even if you’re not sure, respond anyway! These scripts are communication and we need to respond to the child to let them know we understand that they are trying to connect with us. GLP Strategy 2: Follow the Child’s Lead and ImitateTherapy for this group is not drill and practice. It’s about letting the child lead the play or interaction and being there to model language along the way. Imitate what the child does and says. Respond to their communications even if you don’t understand. GLP Strategy 3: Use Statements and SilenceGLPs grab chunks of language by listening for pauses on either end. Model simple sentences with silence on either end, such as… silence ~ It’s snack time. ~ silence GLP Strategy 4: Play with Pitch and EmotionHave you ever noticed that gestalt language processors (GLPs) tend to pick up more phrases and scripts that are full of excitement or emotion? This is because they are tuned in to the intonation or the pitch of what is said. Gestalts that vary from high pitch to low pitch are more fun to say and will stick with our GLPs better than a more monotone one. GLP Strategy 5: Model Gestalts that Will be Easy to Use LaterOnce the child has a large enough repertoire of gestalts, he will start breaking those down into their individual parts or words. We can help facilitate this by modeling gestalts that are easy to break down into smaller part, and easy to use in a variety of situations. Try modeling sentences that start like these: I’m thinking about… I’m ready to… Let’s… We’re going to…. It’s time to… Where’s… Look at the…. How about we… GLP Strategy 6: Mix and Match GestaltsRemember how I said we’d be breaking down those gestalts later? As the child gets better at using gestalts to communicate, model mixing and matching parts of the gestalts like this: Shorten Long Gestalts: Original Gestalt: “Up above the world so high” You model: “So high” Recombine Smaller Chunks to Create New Utterances: Original Gestalts: “Let’s get out of here” and “Want some more?” You model: “Let’s get + some more?” Get More Training and Materials!Are you looking to learn more about supporting gestalt language processors? We have a ton of great resources inside The Hub, including… …courses …therapy materials …handouts …and more! Join us inside The Hub to get the best resources on helping the GLP in your life: Access the Resources Inside The Hub (Free Trial Available) The post From Echolalia and Scripting to Original Speech: Top Strategies for Gestalt Language Processors appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

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