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Published, Version of Record (VoR)Open Access via Drexel Libraries Read and Publish Program 2024CC BY V4.0, Open
Journal article
A Linguist’s Take on Blanc’s Proposition of Gestalt Language Processing and Natural Language Acquisition: An Implausible Theory at Odds with the Research
Current developmental disorders reports, v 11, pp 163-170
01 Oct 2024
Featured in Collection : Research Supported by Drexel Libraries' OA Programs
Abstract
This review critiques Blanc’s Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) and Natural Language Acquisition (GLP/NLA), and related suggestions for clinical practice, from a linguistics angle. Recent findings This review extends a recent critique of GLP/NLA and brings to bear recent research on language acquisition in the general population and in autistic individuals. It also draws upon recent research on effective language teaching methods for minimally speaking autistic individuals, as well as the author’s own synthesis of evidence-based, autism-friendly instruction. Summary In light both of recent research and of earlier findings in the fields of autism and linguistics that are yet unconsidered in the context of GLP, I argue that those whom GLP/NLA proponents claim are “gestalt language processors” or “GLPs” necessarily engage in analytic, as opposed to gestalt, processes. I then explain why (a) the purported linguistic units in GLP—gestalts, defined as language that is echoed as analyzed stretches of speech sounds—are not plausible either as building blocks in language acquisition, or as full-fledged linguistic phenomena; and (b) that language acquisition, for all learners, is necessarily analytic, beginning in the earliest stages. Finally, I argue that some of the GLP/NLA suggestions for working with individuals proponents classify as “gestalt language processors” (also referred to reductively as “GLPs”) are detrimental to the autistic language learners that GLP/NLA proponents purport to be helping.
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Details
- Title
- A Linguist’s Take on Blanc’s Proposition of Gestalt Language Processing and Natural Language Acquisition: An Implausible Theory at Odds with the Research
- Creators
- Katharine Beals (Corresponding Author) - Drexel University, School of Education
- Publication Details
- Current developmental disorders reports, v 11, pp 163-170
- Publisher
- Springer Nature
- Number of pages
- 8
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001324137800001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85205575624
- Other Identifier
- 991021906508104721
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- Web of Science research areas
- Neurosciences
- Psychology, Developmental
- Rehabilitation