Does your child or a child you work with echo or script to communicate? Do they repeat questions, books or movies, but have a hard time producing spontaneous utterances? Have you tried different therapies and techniques but don't see improvement? PLEASE check out Natural Language Acquisition.  If this sounds like your child and you are curious to hear about using this approach, contact us!
 

Natural Language Acquisition is a detailed description of the stages of gestalt language development created by speech-language pathologist Marge Blanc (based off of  Dr. Barry Prizant and Dr. Ann Peter's pioneering research). Gestalt language processors process language in chunks and focus more on intonation than on words. A GLP may store a chunk of language for later use using the exact intonation and language the original speaker used.  Most gestalts (chunks of language or scripts) are also tied to an emotional experience/memory for GLPs.  Most typically developing kids (analytic language processors) will say "dog" and then eventually "big dog" and then expand from there ("mama big dog"). Gestalt language processors may hear a parent say, "Wow, that's a big dog!" and that's what they say every time they see a dog (or any other animal, or walk by the park...).  They have a hard time breaking the"chunk" (or gestalt) apart in the beginning stage of gestalt language development. Natural Language Acquisition is the framework used to guide us in helping a child move from echolalia to self-generated (original, flexible) language.

 

As described in Natural Language Acquisition on the Autism Spectrum: A journey from Echolalia to Self-Generated Language (Marge Blanc, 2012), there are six primary stages of language development among gestalt language processors. They are summarized below with an ongoing example to illustrate the progression.  In reality, mitigation is happening with many phrases simultaneously.  

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Alexandria Zachos created Meaningfulspeech ® in 2021 to educate SLPs, professionals and parents on gestalt language processing and the "how to" in supporting kids who communicate with delayed echolalia using the Natural Language Acquisition framework developed by Marge Blanc.

 

Meaningful Speech® has a main course that provides self paced learning through educational modules, handouts and bonus modules  featuring experts in the field. Get started with our FREE Masterclass today! Ready to deep dive? You can purchase the course on Meaningfulspeech.com. 

The site also offers free PDFs with an explanation of GLP and the research and resources that exist on this topic.