Stages of Gestalt Language Learning (What do Learners Need at Each Stage?)

It’s important to offer the right kinds of support at each stage of gestalt language learning. Here is more information on what to expect at each stage and how to offer appropriate support for the stage.

Stage 1–Whole Gestalts and Echolalia: At this stage, learners repeat whole gestalts exactly as they heard it. Gestalts are repetitions of whole phrases, sentences or longer. They might have been just heard, or heard days ago. This repetition is called echolalia. Sometimes learners will repeat gestalts to soothe or entertain themselves. However, repetitions are often attempts to communicate by taking a turn in conversation or by conveying a specific message (even if the listener does not understand). For example, Jayden might have heard the expression, “The buck stops here!”, in an angry intonation, when his parent was talking to his sibling. When Jayden’s parent later seems to be angry at him, he might say, “The buck stops here!” to communicate, “Oh no, you/I did something wrong!” At this stage, learners need to hear more examples of gestalt phrases and sentences to provide enough material for them to begin to mitigate (recombine) parts.

Stage 2–Mitigation of Gestalts: Gestalt language learners begin to understand the meaning of smaller parts of their gestalts. They begin to break down and recombine these smaller parts with parts from other expressions they know. For example, Jayden learned the meaning of “the kid” from often hearing, “there goes the kid” and “the kid ate the pie”, when watching his favourite cartoon. He also learned the meaning of “stop/s here”, independent of “The buck stops here”. When an anxious, but not angry, parent holds Jayden back from crossing at a red light, Jayden says, “The kid [himself] + stops here”. At this stage, learners need to hear examples of phrases and words combined with parts of gestalts they already know. For example, if a learner says, “Let’s go night-night”, you can begin to model, “Let’s go home”, “Let’s go to the park”, “Let’s go now”.

Stage 3–Isolating Individual Words: Learners now understand the meaning of some single words and they begin to say individual words instead of whole or mitigated gestalts. For example, when Jayden has learned the meaning of “stop,” as a single word, he might say just “stop” when he gets to the red light. Teachers and family members often worry when they hear single words instead of sentences. However, for gestalt learners this is progress. A new understanding of individual words allows learners to begin to combine single words into sentences they have not heard before. For example, Jayden might now say, “Jayden [himself] + stops + now.” At this stage, learners need to hear models of more single words and two-word combinations. Two-word such as adjectives + nouns are a good place to start: “huge dog”; “scary monster”; “red block”, “soft blanket”.

Stage 4-6–Generation of New Sentences by Recombining Single Words: Gestalt language learners continue to combine and recombine individual words to express a greater variety and complexity of sentences they have not heard before. They use many conventional rules of grammar and sentence structure. Now Jayden might say, “Dad, remember to stop at the red light.” It’s important to ensure that the child has a firm grasp of using flexible, spontaneous language before focusing on grammar, articulation and complex language structures. From stages 4 and up, you can begin to focus on modeling the following: asking and answering “wh” questions (“what”, “who”, “why”, “when”, “where” and “how”); conventional grammar; narratives and story-telling; verbal problem-solving; articulation of speech sounds.

For more information on how to supporting a gestalt language processor: