Communication Development Center
Home of:
naturallanguageacquisition.info
gestaltlanguagedevelopment.info
gestaltlanguageprocessing.info
Welcome!
You have come to the right place! It is here that you will discover amazing truths about language development! And it is our hope that through this site you will learn that language development:
- is far more inclusive than you ever imagined.
- has more paths to success than you were taught in school.
- is natural and accessible for all children when we understand and embrace the two main paths children follow
We all know about the ‘typical’ path. But there’s a second path of natural language development called ‘gestalt language development’ — which contrasts with ‘analytic language development,’ and leads to the same grammar development. Gestalt language development is common among both neurotypical and neurodivergent children, and has predictable stages. Knowledge of it is not new; it was described in early, qualitative research — but that knowledge has gotten lost in the last several decades — and is now being rediscovered by all of us. This is because of the longitudinal clinical research that described it in detail — and quantified it through extensive language sampling over 15 years. Please read on!
We now understand that both styles of language development are normal and natural — and both lead to original, self-generated, complex language. What’s different is how each begins — and about the thinking each represents. One begins with language gestalts (whole phrases, songs, stories, movies); the other with single words. Each is natural, research-verified, and predictable — however, analytic language development is commonly known while gestalt language development remains unfamiliar to many of us. Why? Because analytic language processing (ALP) seems logical to us. Single words are easier for young children to say, and easier for us to understand. ALP can be easier to document in kids’ development — so it has been much easier to study. Children who use a gestalt language processing (GLP) style have a hard time making their long gestalts understood — so they are often misunderstood or ignored. And, for this reason, among others, they have been left out of most of the research since the 80’s — except ours!
But there’s another reason ALP has been considered the ‘only way’ language develops. Gestalt language processing (GLP) seems implausible to some people, because language gestalts have been seen as ‘meaningless echolalia,’ or ’substandard.’ That misjudgment has set us back many decades, and left us in the ‘dark ages’ when people felt echolalia should be extinguished or at least replaced. So, even if you’ve never heard anything good associated with echolalia, here is where you will find out that there’s everything good about echolalia. It’s part of natural language development!
This website is the home of everything you might want to know about gestalt language development. How did this come to be? Because of Natural Language Acquisition (NLA), the culmination of clinical research that brought GLP back into focus, and back on the map.
What is NLA?
NLA is a detailed description of gestalt language development, the result of the clinical research of Marge Blanc and colleagues (M. Blanc, 2005, 2012, 2023). Founded on the pioneering work of Ann Peters (A. Peters, 1983), and Barry Prizant and colleagues (B. Prizant, 1982, 83), NLA evolved as the research-based framework which details and quantifies the process of gestalt language development from Stage 1 (use of language gestalts) to Stage 6 (culminating in a complete grammar system). NLA is not a ‘practice,’ but a description of the natural, developmental process of gestalt language development, and provides a road-map for supporting children in natural, conversational, developmentally-appropriate ways.
It’s an exciting and amazing story, one that we will bring to life on these pages. As we continue to spread the word, more and more children are being recognized as using a gestalt style, and acknowledged as the capable communicators they are and will continue to become. No longer will these children be seen as deficient analytic processors — or disordered children who need to be prompted to achieve a small semblance of analytic language development. Instead, they can now be viewed as developing language naturally — the gestalt way!
You will learn about it here. You will learn how to spot gestalt language processing, and develop the confidence to support children in their journeys from language gestalts to complex self-generated language. Continue Reading >>
Growing Up Undiagnosed Part 1
Growing Up Undiagnosed: Part 1 Reflecting upon my childhood floods my brain with a million vivacious memories each made complete with an emotional tie that
Gestalt Language Development & Gestalt Language Processing, 2025
This article responds to criticism of Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) raised during an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Special Interest Group discussion. The authors argue that critics incorrectly equate NLA with gestalt language processing and overlook decades of research on gestalt language development by scholars such as Barry Prizant and Amy Wetherby, while also reflecting broader tensions in how autistic communication has been studied and interpreted.
Gestalt Language Processing, Natural Language Acquisition & the State of Research with Marge Blanc
Click the link below to Learn More:
Sunday Mornings with Jaime and Cathy: Let's Talk Executive Functioning
From Jaime Hoerricks on ‘auto-ethnography’:
“We as Gestalt processors … have to be the ones that define it. We have to tell the academy, this is how we define it.”
“The Natural Language Acquisition framework, as lived rather than proceduralised, is profoundly Kairos-oriented—space, safety, connection, readiness.”
Autoethnography: A Deeply Personal Method for Qualitative Research
Autoethnography is a qualitative research method that combines personal storytelling with cultural analysis, allowing researchers to examine their own experiences within broader social contexts. By using reflection and first-person narrative, it connects individual stories to larger social issues, offering deeper insight into how personal identity, culture, and experience intersect. This approach can make research more accessible and meaningful while fostering empathy, self-awareness, and new perspectives on complex human experiences.
Dr Jaime Hoerricks has published an extraordinary article:
Exploring Neurodiversity Podcast
This isn’t just a paper about Gestalt Language Processing.
It’s a reclamation; a reframing of scripting not as delay, not as dysfunction, but as authorship. As survival. As method.
Jaime weaves lived experience, theory, poetry and critical disability scholarship to challenge the idea that language must be linear, analytic, and neatly measurable to be valid.
“We do not arrive in parts of speech. We arrive whole.”
The Script is Not the Silence: Autotheory of a GLP Mind in a Pathologized World – Jaime Hoerricks, 2026
Additional information pertinent to the NLA book.
