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The Gestalt Communication Method ~ 2.27.2025
Recently, I found this article by Unvidived “Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) 101” , introducing me to Gestalt’s Principles that explain scripted speech and echolalia demonstrated by many children with Autism, including Little P. Essentially, Gestalt is the German word for “form” or “shape,” but in terms of language and visual arts, it’s more about the concept of “big-to-small,” as stated in the article, and later confirmed by Green Carr (who took graphic design courses in college where she learned about Gestault).
When a child is a Gestalt communicator, they learn language in chunks and phrases before learning what individual words mean; overtime, they will break down larger phrases into words and begin to rearrange them, hence the “big-to-small” learning. GLP describes how Little P is currently learning how to speak. Additionally, it echoes a sentiment one of Little P’s speech therapists told me that children with Autism often gain expressive language in chunks.
When Cool Cat C was little, she was non verbal, but when she gained expressive speech, she began to learn words, then phrases and then sentences. She still had some articulation difficulties, but generally followed the typical path of children gaining expressive speech. However, Little P’s mastery of language has been different, she babbled frequently as a baby and had a large vocabulary that she mostly used to label objects. She now labels, scripts, and echoes often and is not yet at the level where her communication is clear to others not familiar with her communication procedures yet. However, recently, there have been moments of her breaking away from scripting and echoing to answer questions or phrases. For example, when Daddy Dog or I tell her “I love you, Little P” she often echoes us and repeats “I love you, Little P” to which we would prompt her with “Say ‘I love you to…’” without giving her the person, so that she fills in the blanks. Recently though, I told her that I loved her and she responded “I love you to Mommy” without echoing, which is such a huge milestone for parents with children who are non-verbal, limited verbal or non-conversational! Ironically, as Little P is finally learning to say “I love you” without prompting, Cool Cat C now refuses to say “I love you” back as a teenager.
There are several other examples in recent months where Little P has spoken intentional phrases to express her needs, wants and feelings, or advocated for herself without prompting. And after reading Undivided’s GLP article, I believe she was using GLP to master phrases and their general meaning and is currently breaking down some of them to be more specific to the situation; this is discussed further into the article in the section about Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) framework.
The NLA framework has 6 stages that start from Gestalts and end at original sentences with a complete grammar system. Essentially, it goes over how a child that learns language through Gesalts breaks down phrases into words and uses words they learned to form original sentences. At this point, with some, but not all of Little P’s Gestalts she is mitigating them and breaking up her scripting into smaller chunks.
Undivided’s GLP article goes into much more detail and is written with the help of Speech and Language Pathologists, so if you believe that your child is a Gestalt Language Processor, I encourage you to check it out. You have to make an account but it is free and Undivided has plenty of other incredibly helpful resources for the special needs community. And you can also use SDP funds to pay for their Platform and Navigator services!
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