Wholistic Language Facilitation: Individual Language styles in ASD

Beyond Gestalt. Re-visiting Individual Routes to Language & Process & Practicalities of Therapy.

This is about Wholistic Language Facilitation. 'Gestalt' friendly therapy approaches will be explored, but the focus is on the wider picture of child’s language development within different ecologies.

The concept of an ecology, more fluid and interactive than a language environment is brought into evaluation and therapy planning.

Reflections on Gestalt & Rationale for this Study Day

I don't usually write as much in the course information, but for this topic there is a little more background and rationale to the day!

I began hearing about GLP about 14 months ago, in my supervision sessions with SLTs across the UK. GLP grew traction, and as language development in the context of autistic spectrum disorder is my specialist field, I was interested, and to be honest, a little confused.

When everyone is talking about a new approach and people are beginning to ask the question "Are you GLP" trained?" it can be unsettling. Eventually I decided to spend time reading the literature and finding out more. I have done the hard work, in devising this course, of looking at the roots of the original research that some of the current material is based upon.

This online study day is the result. Throughout my professional career as an SLT I have always found going back to the original source (the articles and books) gives me a fresh and often slightly different perspective. In the Therapy Series I do this with Blanks Levels of Language & Lahey's Language Framework.

The Gestalt approach quotes Barry Prizant and Judy Duchan. As an interactionist therapist I have found both inspirational and am glad that SCERTS has embedded in schools across the UK.

I was lucky enough to attend a seminar by Judy when she visited City University of London on a research exchange semester. Her approach had already interested me as it was child centred and focused on the system of supports a child needed to thrive and enjoy communicating with others. She showcased the work of Stephen Calculator and his Inclusive approach to planning communication programmes

The children in the individual research projects in the 1980s were familiar to me! I worked in an assessment nursery, and designated special provision for children with ASD during the 1990s. We used Teacch for our classroom structure, but alongside this I drew on various approaches to meet the needs of the children. I had the opportunity to evaluate and track the children's levels and style of communication development to learn what their individual pathway to communicative competence was (functional communication in everyday life.)

I often say that you never work with 2 children who are the same in speech and language therapy. In language therapy with autistic children, we utilise strategies before reflecting and adjusting. If we are lucky we have a team approach, and as SLTs we can work in a consultative, collaborative model, with parents and education staff as valued 'communication team' members. The reflection and evaluation can be done in partnership with others in the 'team'.

So, this course visits, and then goes beyond gestalt. The focus is on looking at individual patterns. If a child is using echolalia then that can be a factor in evaluating and planning intervention. I would just argue that there are wider complimentary approaches, and when we consider Wholistic communication development we are bringing in all the strands (or areas of focus) which are needed in a comprehensive therapy plan. There is a focus on extending interests in play, facilitating cognitive and conceptual learning using Vygotsky's zone of teaching/development.

The tools are there and it is about how we adapt and utilise for each child's individual style of language learning.

So, this study day takes you back to the roots of the ‘gestalt’ learning style and its cognitive underpinnings. We will scrutinize the literature of Barry Prizant, Judy Duchan and then others like Marge Blanc, who have developed specific approaches but have used the term Gestalt Language Processing.

A framework to look at language and note the differences between Analytic and Gestalt modes of language acquisition is introduced and should re-assure families that gestalt is considered in planning. Gestalt is de-mystified.

It is designed for SLT's and SLTA's and anyone with an interest in language and communication therapy approaches who work with children with ASD.

It isn't only about echolalic patterns of language, but a wider individual evaluation and planning process, which takes in our usual 'tools' of assessing conceptual, play, functional use of speech acts, and motivation to communicate.

In view of the current debate and controversies this course focuses on the children. Devising a profile, and setting up a more individual, wholistic, therapy map, which meets their needs and shows how to track and adjust this map over time.

The map is individual and Gestalt Friendly for the children with language patterns like those described by Prizant, Duchan and others in their publications.

You will certainly be able to talk about GLP with other professionals in an informed way.

The GISELLE model for looking at a child's language learning style is introduced as a visual way of pulling together the theory into practical assessment and therapy. The approach guides you through working out which route to language a child is taking, and mapping their direction and progress on a profile.

When evolving the GISELLE framework I chose Ecology rather than Environment, after considerable reflection. The term Environment is well known and it works well, but for this framework I remembered how the concept of a 'Communicative Ecology' fits so well into all communication therapy. We interact in a fluid way with those around us, and how they respond and interact with us influences our emotional regulation and development. An Ecology is more than an Environment and I like the idea in relation to communication development and how a child processes and acquires language. It sort of works for me as a concept!

This Study Day focuses on the process of early language development and the individual routes taken by children. The WLP or Wholistic Language Profile will be shared as a way of recording a child's individual route to language and tracking change over time.