Gestalt Language Processing

Some people learn language in units such as movie lines and song lines or phrases they have heard regularly from a care giver such as ‘Good morning, Mr. Jones’. These people are gestalt language processors.

A gestalt language processor may use learnt phrases (a.k.a. language units) in contexts where they may not make sense to people who do not know about gestalt language processing. For example, a child may use the phrase ‘hip-hip hooray’ in situations when they feel happy, such as when they are going down a slide, receiving an ice cream and/or when they see a cute puppy dog.

Some Speech Pathologists will use the natural language acquisition of gestalt learners, in their therapy approach. This approach is called Natural Language Acquisition- N.L.A.

N.L.A. has 4 stages. In N.L.A. the term ‘echolalia’ is not used.

Marge Le Blac is well known for helping people learn about gestalt processing and N.L.A. I first heard about her and N.L.A. from a passionate ex- colleague- Jayde Watts.  You can watch a free video on N.L.A., via the website link below.

https://naturalcommunication.com/products/one-hour-introduction-to-nla-w-marge-blanc-paulina-elias-and-amanda-blackwell

Written by Jessica Bibby

Copyright, 18 09 2024