Triveni Goswami Vernal
Registered Special Educator (CRR A64010)

The previous blog looked at how both minimally speaking as well as non-speaking individuals on the Autism Spectrum may be Gestalt Language Processors. This blog will have two parts—Part 1 will provide a brief overview of Gestalt Language Processing and what it entails. Part 2 will shed light on how AACs can be used by Gestalt Language Processors to communicate.

Gestalt Language Processing involves acquiring language in a Top-Down method- where individuals acquire speech as long “chunks” or scripts instead of single words.

Individuals who are Gestalt Language Processors often use phrases they may have heard in a song or seen in a video and then transplant and use it in a relevant context in a given situation (that may be completely unconnected to the original context in which it was used). For a parent or a caregiver, who may not know of the original source of the phrase, it may be quite confusing in the beginning. Deciphering the exact nature of the phrase requires a fair bit of detective work.

HOW DOES ONE LOCATE THE SOURCE OF THE PHRASES, THEN?
Technology offers some hope in the form of websites that curate common phrases found in various videos of songs/ rhymes/ animations/memes etc, that one can use to find the original context of the phrase. One such website is getyarn.io (Disclaimer:  I could not open it at all). Other similar resources are playphrase.me (paid) and vlipsy.com (free).

STAGES OF GESTALT LANGUAGE PROCESSING
According to the website, http://www.meaningfulspeech.com, there are 6 stages of Gestalt Language Processing. In brief, they are as follows:
“Stage 1: Delayed Echolalia
Stage 2: Mix and Match Stage (Partial Gestalts)
Stage 3: Single Words and Two-Word Combinations
Stages 4-6: New Original Phrases or Sentences with Beginning Grammar, More Advanced and Complex Grammar.”

MY PERSONAL JOURNEY AS A PARENT TO A GESTALT LANGUAGE PROCESSOR
I discovered fairly late, in 2023 that my son, who is now 14 and is minimally speaking and on the Autism Spectrum, is a Gestalt Language Processor. I wasn’t even aware of Gestalt Language Processing till 2023. I only got to know about it through another parent, in a parent support network discussion.
He had regressed when he was around 2.5years old losing all the speech, that he had acquired till then and was reduced to a stage of babbling. He acquired single words over the years and a few phrases, but his communication was and always has been, primarily need based.

There was a spurt of vocabulary during the period of lockdown (due to Covid) and in the years that followed. It was also a phase when intensive one on one work was carried out with him at home, focusing on visual and auditory processing skills, executive functioning skills, reading books, writing, typing, playing a lot of word search puzzles, jigsaw puzzles etc. I taught him to play the keyboard (watching YouTube videos on “how to play xyz song”) and realized that he was very quick to pick up tunes and play it on the keyboard.

Once I discovered that he was a Gestalt Language Processor, what really helped me in my communication journey with him, was to mindfully curate a list of all the phrases he used in a given context. I usually type it down on the notes app on my phone with a date and the context in which it has been used. That has helped me in understanding which stage of Gestalt Language Processing he is in and how he is able to mitigate a phrase to create his own phrases (however grammatically incorrect they may be) now.

It is not easy trying to figure out the original source of the phrases he often uses but time and again, I have realized how intelligent individuals on the Autism Spectrum are. They have always been communicating with us –whether through gestures, or vocalizations or single words or intonations or phrases, but it is us (the parents/caregivers/therapists/educators etc), who have not yet risen to the occasion, so to say and are often found grappling in the dark. Being mindful and present with the individuals, can open up new ways of meeting them where they are at, acknowledge their efforts at communication and help them in their communication journey.
Part 2 of the blog will look at how AACs can be used by Gestalt Language Processors.

REFERENCES:
http://www.meaningfulspeech.com
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Dr.Triveni Goswami Vernal is a Registered Special Educator (CRR: A64010), a Psychologist and an Expressive Arts Therapy Practitioner (UNESCO-CID). She is an Avaz Certified Educator and Certified in Dyslexia Teacher Training. She is also an art educator for children with additional needs. She has a 14 year old on the Autism spectrum. She is presently working as a Consultant Special Educator at Oyster CDC, Begumpet, Hyderabad.

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“Bunch of Red Anemones”
Acrylic Painting on Watercolour Paper
Kabir Vernal