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Welcome to another episode of the SLP Now podcast! We’re continuing the series where we do a deep dive into all things Gestalt Language Processing, and I’m bringing some of the best in our field to join me and share their expertise.
Today, Marisha and Jessica Teixeira discuss Gestalt Language Processing fundamentals!
Takeaways from This Episode
- Jessica’s journey reflects common struggles faced by SLPs.
- Language processing is a continuum from analytic to gestalt language processing.
- Analytic language processors are referred to as ‘word babies’.
- Gestalt language processors are known as ‘intonation babies’.
- Echolalia is often misunderstood; it can be meaningful.
- Historical research on GLP dates back to the 70s and 80s.
- Social media has played a crucial role in spreading awareness of GLP.
- Understanding GLP helps SLPs support diverse communication needs.
- Individualized approaches are essential for effective therapy.
- Trusting one’s instincts can lead to better outcomes for clients.
Jessica’s Additional GLP Resources
- Jessica’s Instagram
- Play Haven Pediatric Therapy
- “Child-Led & Gestalt Language Processing” Handout
- Uniquely Human Podcast
- Meaningful Speech Instagram
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Transcript
Marisha (00:01.796)
Hey there and welcome to the SLP Now podcast. We are kicking off a series on all things crystal language processing. So for the next several episodes, we have a variety of guests to help us break down this topic. And I'm really excited to have Jessica Teixeira with us today.
she is a certified speech language pathologist with a passion for supporting professionals and parents on their journey and learning about Gestalt language development and neurodiversity affirming practices. you can find her on Instagram, Jess the SLP, and then I'll link to her some other other places you can find her on, in the show notes, which will be linked in the episode. but.
The bio that I just kind of shared does Jessica know justice. So let's turn it over to Jessica and hear from her. So hello, Jessica.
Jessica Teixeira (01:03.34)
Hello, thanks for having me.
Marisha (01:05.74)
I'm so excited to have you kick off the series with us. And, before we dive into all things, GLP, I'm really curious just to hear a little bit more about your story. Like how did you end up learning so much about GLP and kind of what led you down this route?
Jessica Teixeira (01:24.088)
Yeah, so a little about my story and how I ended up here is in my clinical fellowship here, I worked at a clinic where I mainly supported autistic students and about 90 % of my caseload was autistic. And I was doing all of the things that we were taught in grad school and just kept thinking.
what I was doing didn't feel right. I wasn't seeing the progress with my clients that I was taught that I should see. And what I would see very limited progress or some progress and then it would plateau. And I also saw that my clients really didn't enjoy my sessions. Like I think they liked
me as a clinician, but they just weren't having fun. And honestly, I didn't enjoy my sessions either. was like, I was so passionate about being an SLP. It's something I've wanted to be for so long. My mom worked in the school. She's worked in the school since she was 18 years old. And I would always go to school with her. And at first I wanted to be a teacher. And then I saw an SLP do a push in and I was like, that is what I want to do.
And then I was actually in these sessions as a full on SLP and I was like, what's going on? I don't enjoy being here. My clients don't enjoy being here. I'm not seeing the progress that they're telling me I should see. What, like something there has to be something else. And I honestly started questioning if this was even really the field for me. And so I honestly, in a last ditch effort.
went to Google and I, and this is probably the type five Enneagram in me. If anybody knows anything about Enneagrams, I'm a type five. I don't know if that says anything, but I just need to understand everything about everything. And so I just deep dived into other ways that I could support my clients. And all of sudden,
Jessica Teixeira (03:46.806)
Marge Blanc's book, Natural Language Acquisition on the Autism Spectrum popped up and I was like, huh, interesting. Let me deep dive into that more. And then Alexandria Zakos' work with Meaningful Speech very, very early on, like right when she started Meaningful Speech started coming on my Instagram feed. And so was like these two worlds, Marge's book and Alex's work collided and I was like, just deep dived into...
everything that they were saying. I was reading Marge's book every day after work. I was like so just amazed by everything Alex was posting on Instagram and it just felt right. Like it looked like exactly what I had been looking for. And then so honestly, I just was like, I might as well try it, right? Like what else is, you know, what do I have to lose? And so I started
implementing a lot of these strategies that they were talking about. I, everything changed for me. My clients started enjoying my sessions more. I started loving my job and then I was actually seeing the progress that I was told that I should be seeing. And the rest is kind of history. just
absolutely fell in love with supporting Gestalt language processors and that's how I connected with Alexandria Zachos and joined the Meaningful Speech team, started my practice supporting Gestalt language processors and here we are.
Marisha (05:21.07)
That's amazing. I love that. And I feel like your story is one that a lot of SLPs can relate to. I've heard a variation of that for a lot of different areas. So I love that you kind of persevered and even like, you were a problem solver and you're trying to like figure out how to find that joy in being an SLP. And it sounds like you were super successful.
Jessica Teixeira (05:28.238)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Teixeira (05:33.774)
Yup.
Jessica Teixeira (05:49.74)
think so.
Marisha (05:50.842)
I love that. Okay, so thank you so much for sharing your story. And so now we get to get into a little bit of the nitty gritty. So I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. So can you walk us through what GLP is and kind of a super quick primer in terms of like if an SLP hasn't heard about it yet.
Jessica Teixeira (06:14.414)
you
Jessica Teixeira (06:18.318)
Absolutely. Yes, so I always start by saying I think it's helpful to think of language processing as a continuum so a continuum from analytic language processing to the short language processing and What this means is some children might be fully analytic Some children might be fully to shawl and some children might fall somewhere between the two so when I talk about the short language processing and probably
through the rest of this episode, I'm mostly referring to the children that fall more towards that gestalt side of the spectrum. But let's start with what analytic language processing is and then dive into GLP. So analytic language processing is something that all SLPs, parents, really anybody who's listening to this is probably familiar with. These are children that we refer to as word babies.
And these are the children that start with single words. These single words are flexible to start. They're referential. And these single words hold an individual meaning for that child. These single words then in stage two become two word combinations and then three word phrases and then early grammar in sentences, more advanced grammar, and then they're having adult-like conversations, right? This sounds very familiar.
what we learned about in grad school, what we see in most doctors' offices on charts and where your child should be. But the word that I really like to point out with analytic language processors is flexible. So their language is flexible to start. So right from that stage one, that language is flexible, referential, you can build on it as they move through the stages. With gestalt language processors, they are what we refer to as intonation babies.
So they start with chunks of language and they pick up these chunks based on the intonational contour of that chunk and also the experience from when they heard it. So it typically holds a much larger meaning for that child and that whole experience from when they heard that chunk. They pick up these chunks verbatim and these chunks are not flexible.
Jessica Teixeira (08:39.394)
These chunks can be any length, so they could be a single word, they can be a sentence, or I think as Marge Blanc says, they can be as short as a single word or as long as a movie. But again, they're not flexible. Unlike analytic language processors, they can't be expanded on, they can't be combined into longer utterances. And these chunks are often referred to as echolalia or scripting.
And they're actually more accurately described as gestalts. And that is the first stage of gestalt language development. And like analytic language processors, they move through very predictable stages. So they start with these chunks that are not flexible. In stage two, they become a little bit more flexible. They can start to mix and match or trim them down. In stage three, they start to isolate single words from those previous gestalts.
that are now flexible, just like where analytic language processors start, and then those stages start to look a little bit more similar. But, gestalt language processors have to go through two additional stages before they really get to where analytic language processors start.
Marisha (09:55.93)
Wow, that was such a nice overview. I love how you broke down those two and how we can think of analytic language processors as the word babies and the gestalt language processors as the intonation babies. And you did just a beautiful job of differentiating those. So thank you. And then, so can you tell us a little bit about the history behind this and maybe like,
Jessica Teixeira (10:12.11)
Thank you.
Marisha (10:24.078)
just what your perception is of like, why are we so focused on the analytic language processors? Like, why didn't we learn about this in grad school? Like, what's your take on that?
Jessica Teixeira (10:35.246)
Absolutely. This is one of my favorite questions. So I talk to many, many, people because I do professional consultations. I do in-person and virtual trainings and professional development. So I'm connecting with SLPs and professionals from various experience levels. So new, more experienced. And what I've come to learn is
One, GLP has been around for a while. If you talk to SLPs who have been in the field for a while, SLPs who have been practicing since the 70s, the 80s, or around that time, they'll tell you, I know about GLP. Like, this is nothing new. I've heard about this. They'll refer to Dr. Barry Prizant. They'll refer to Dr. Ann Peters. They'll say, I know the research. I know echolalia is meaningful. I don't know.
you know, why this seems like a new thing to so many people, because they learned about it. They saw this research, they learned about it in grad school. They've been practicing like echolalia is meaningful and acknowledging it and all the things that we're kind of discussing now. so this research has been around since the seventies and eighties. So like I said, Dr. Barry Prizant, Dr. Ann Peters, they published research back then.
And then Dr. Prizant in his research really called for more research. And what happened is Marge Blanc read this research and was like, I can do that. I can provide more research on this. So what she did is conduct 15 years of clinical research in her clinic on her clients. And she wrote the book that I referred to earlier, Natural Language Acquisition on the Autism Spectrum.
on that 15 years of clinical research. And what she did is she created the natural language acquisition framework, which really discussed how we can support these children. And she took the stages that Barry Prizant discussed in his research, those first four stages, and then she built on those and she added two additional stages, which really focused more on advanced and complex grammar. And so
Jessica Teixeira (13:00.992)
Then from there, happened is Marge's book was published in 2012 and people came across Marge's book. People like Alex Zachos, who's the founder of Meaningful Speech, where she was like, this is everything I've been looking for. I think we have very similar stories, just different times where Alex had been practicing for many years into being an SLP and she was feeling the same way. And she came across Marge's book.
And she was like, how do people not know about this? So what she did is she realized that so many people in this field are on social media. And she found that to be a great way to spread this information about gestalt language processing so that people would know that this exists. And I guess to answer, I got a bit off on a tangent. I'm gonna reel myself back and say,
Between Dr. Prizant and Ann Peters' work and Marge's book, our field went in a very different direction. Our field went a lot more in a compliance-based direction, and those strategies really are the opposite of how we support gestalt language processors. so it was taught back then, and then our field went more in that compliance-based direction. And all of this information kind of got
pushed to the side. not that it didn't exist, but people weren't taught about it until Marge's book came out. And then Alex got on social media, people learned about it, and here we are.
Marisha (14:43.96)
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And it's super interesting that how social media kind of helped revamp this a little bit. That's powerful.
Jessica Teixeira (14:54.766)
Right, right. It's such a great tool. mean, so many people are on social media to learn and connect with each other. I think sometimes people think of it as just the social media thing and it blew up on social media, but it's really such a tool for us to connect in this profession and to learn and, you know, just think more critically about what we're doing. I, you know, Alex saw that as an opportunity and I'm so glad she did because that's how, you know, one of the ways that I came across this information.
Marisha (15:25.08)
Yeah. Wow. And it's, our scope of practice is so broad and there's so much research. Like if we had, if we were just going straight to the research, like digging up the articles from the seventies and eighties would like a lot less people would have access to those.
Jessica Teixeira (15:43.702)
Absolutely. And another thing with social media too is it's allowed us to connect with actual Gestalt language processors, autistic adults who have said, this is exactly how I process language. This is it. And so we've been able to connect and hear from them and we're able to gain that part of.
evidence-based practice from the actual clients sharing their experiences and saying, hey, yes, this is how I process language. This is how I develop language. And yes, these things that you're saying are exactly, you know, what supported us in getting to self-generated, self-motivated language. So it's just, it's a great tool.
Marisha (16:29.338)
That is a great tool. And yeah, that's important to consider the whole triangle and not just the research aspect. So that's great. And then, okay, so that was a really helpful overview. so I think we have like a pretty good idea now, but let's just drive this point home. So why is it important for SLPs to learn about crystal language processing? And like, can we just...
Jessica Teixeira (16:35.63)
Sure is.
Marisha (16:58.488)
highlight a few ways that this could help us better support our students.
Jessica Teixeira (17:03.458)
Absolutely. So like I said earlier, we were taught about analytic language processing in grad school, and that means we were taught about strategies that support analytic language processors. So those are strategies like expansion or building vocabulary and labeling or WH questions, focusing on grammar and, you know, grammar early on. And those things might work for analytic language processors, but
they don't support the gestalt language processors in the early stages. And so if we are just using these strategies with all of the clients that we're supporting, then we're really only supporting analytic language processors and what we're actually doing, whether, you know, if we don't know about gestalt language processing, it might be well-intended, just like me, before I learned about it. And I was saying, I was doing all of these things and it was well-intended and I loved my clients and I wanted
to see progress, but I was actually hindering their progress by using these strategies because what some of these or what these strategies do is they can keep the gestalt language processors stuck in the early stages. So I'll give you an example. If we are using a strategy like building vocabulary or labeling.
What happens is we focus on labeling and whether we're naturally labeling things around the room or we're teaching children, you know, single word labels for things, we're building up a repertoire of these single word gestalts because remember, that's where it starts is these chunks of language that can be of any length. So if we're teaching or modeling these single words, they're picking up the single word as a chunk.
And going back to what I said, these chunks aren't flexible. So if we build up a repertoire of hundreds of single words, which I see with many of my clients, these are single words that can't be expanded on. They can't be, right? They can't be built upon. They can't be expanded on. They are inflexible.
Jessica Teixeira (19:17.51)
And it makes it so it's really hard for that child to go from stage one and move through the stages because they have all of these single words that can't be combined and can't be yeah, they can't be combined into these longer self-generated phrases and sentences. So if we understand gestalt language development, we can see the long-term picture, right? We can see these children can get to self-generated flexible language.
but we can't rush it. We need to start where they are. So if a child is in stage one, no matter how old they are, right, if they're a 10 year old who's in stage one, we might wish that they could have these back and forth conversations because that's what we want for that child, but we have to start where they are. So it's important that we understand the stages so that we're not trying to rush them and return.
hindering their ability to get to self-generated, self-motivated, flexible language. So if we understand Gestalt language development and we understand the stages, we understand what our goals are and how to support these children to get to self-generated language.
Marisha (20:38.008)
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And so if we're seeing a student who is like maybe like picking up the single words, but we're not seeing them go to the like start to combine the words, then that might be a really strong indicator that we want to consider using a different approach. And there are a lot of other things that we'll see in addition to lack of progress. But we'll dive into that in future.
Jessica Teixeira (20:50.67)
All right.
Jessica Teixeira (21:02.062)
sorry.
Marisha (21:07.17)
episodes in the series. So we'll have an episode where we dive into the different stages and assessment strategies and all sorts of stuff. So there's some really, really great content coming because you might be leaving this episode with more questions than answers. But this was meant to be the primer just to get us on the same page. And yeah, so I'm really excited to continue learning. And then
Jessica, thank you so much for breaking this down in such a nice way. Is there anything else that you wanted to kind of wrap up with or share?
Jessica Teixeira (21:43.502)
I think my only piece of advice is to trust your gut like I did in those early years in my clinical fellowship. If what you're doing doesn't feel right or if you're feeling like there could be something else, just explore it. Don't just keep doing what you're doing because that's what you were taught. There might be another way and just.
Make sure that every client that comes through your door, you take an individualized approach to that client. And yeah, I think that's where I'd like to leave it.
Marisha (22:18.554)
Yeah, beautifully said. And then I mentioned that you're Jess the SLP on Instagram and your website is playhavenpediatrics.com. Is there anywhere else?
Jessica Teixeira (22:32.078)
So I also am on the meaningful speech Instagram as well. I'm on the meaningful speech team and I just recently joined the uniquely human team with Dr. Barry Prizant. So you'll likely see me more there as well. So I'm on both of those accounts.
Marisha (22:32.57)
when I was a student.
Marisha (22:49.024)
amazing. So I'll link to all of those and then we'll hear from Alex from Meaningful Speech in a couple episodes too so you'll get to, or listeners will get to meet her and yeah I'm excited for all the great content so thanks for kicking us off Jessica.
Jessica Teixeira (23:06.85)
Thanks for having me.
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