Today’s episode offers an in-depth discussion distinguishing Autism as a neurological way of being from Gestalt Language Processing (GLP) as a specific language pathway, clarifying that they frequently intersect but are not synonymous. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, advocates for a paradigm shift that recognises GLP—where language is acquired in holistic, tonal patterns—as a valid developmental architecture, contrasting it with the dominant, segmented Analytic Language Processing (ALP) model. Central to this argument is the historical importance of Barry Prizant’s 1983 work, which was revolutionary for interpreting echolalia not as a deficit but as communicative intelligence and a step in the process of unbundling meaning from whole gestalts. Ultimately, Dr. Hoerricks argues that the marginalisation of GLP within therapeutic and educational systems constitutes epistemic violence, advocating instead for an approach that views all forms of language acquisition as relational and embodied pathways to connection and self-regulation.

Here’s the link to the source article: https://open.substack.com/pub/autside/p/the-shape-of-language-revisiting

Let me know what you think.

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