Gestalt Language

Children who are ‘Gestalt Language’ learners acquire language in a different way than their peers who are considered ‘analytic language’ learners. These children learn to speak by memorizing whole phrases such as ‘pick you up’ or ‘let’s go everybody’, and will overuse these phrases in different contexts. These ‘gestalt processors’ then learn the meaning of the words to allow them to create novel phrases to communicate. Speech therapists have been treating this type of learner for years and usually called it ‘echolalia’. Research has shown that these ‘echolalia utterances’ actually follow a pattern of language development that help the children learn to create novel phrases and sentences. It is our job as speech therapists and parents to help them do this!