the gestalt get-together

Enhancing Language Through Music: Exploring Gestalt Language Processing and Melodies - A presentation by Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC SLP, as part of the Gestalt Get-Together webinar series and podcast.

Earn 0.2 ASHA CEUs for this episode with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=The-Gestalt-Get-Together-What-is-Gestalt-Processing-

In this episode, Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC-SLP, is joined by the legendary Marge Blanc, MA, CCC-SLP, to lay a foundation of what Gestalt Language Processing and Natural Language Acquisition are. You’ll hear about the past, present, and future of this exciting part of our field and clear examples of language from each of the six stages of NLA.

About the guest:

Marge Blanc is the director of the Communication Development Center in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and author of Natural Language Acquisition on the Autism Spectrum: The Journey from Echolalia to Self-Generated Language (2012). As a speech-language pathologist for 45+ years, Marge met her first autistic gestalt language processor as a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Marge subsequently founded the CDC clinic in Madison to serve autistic clients and others who benefit from sensorimotor support. Marge conducted clinical research in her practice, detailing gestalt language development in various children and young adults. Her longitudinal findings described and quantified the stages of gestalt language development outlined by Barry Prizant and supported by the research findings of Ann Peters. In its sixth printing, the book was endorsed by Barry Prizant as “...the most comprehensive consideration of echolalia and language characteristics of persons with autism to date...(which) brings us back to a crucial understanding of language characteristics and language acquisition in ASD...”

Enhancing Language Through Music: Exploring Gestalt Language Processing and Melodies - A presentation by Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC SLP, as part of the Gestalt Get-Together webinar series and podcast.

Earn 0.15 ASHA CEU for this episode with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=Melody-and-Memory-in-Autism

Join Corinne Zmoos for a deep dive into Gestalt language processing (GLP) and its intersection with music and psychoacoustics. In this episode, Corinne discusses the importance of musical language for autistic children, memory processing, and techniques to integrate melody into speech therapy sessions. Highlights include insights into research on musical memory, pitch discrimination, and practical melodic techniques like piggybacking, staircase melodies, and mountain melodies for effective language acquisition. Tune in to explore the evidence and enhance your practice with these musical methods!

00:00 Introduction to the Gestalt Get-Together

02:52 Understanding Gestalt Language Processing

04:50 Stage One of Gestalt Language Processing

07:34 Situational Gestalts and Memory Encoding

14:18 Linguistic Gestalts and Stage One Characteristics

17:33 Stages of Language Acquisition and Marge Blanc's Contributions

23:13 Working Memory and Autism

36:42 Musical Memory and Its Importance

43:20 Exploring Melody and Its Components

49:19 Pitch Discrimination and Memory Tasks

51:07 Findings on Autistic Children's Musical Abilities

52:17 Pamela Heaton's Research on Pitch Memory

54:09 Implications for Therapy Sessions

55:54 Enhanced Memory for Vocal Melodies

01:00:12 Melodic Techniques for Therapy

01:03:02 Piggybacking: A Songwriting Technique

01:12:41 Stepwise and Mountain Melodies

01:20:15 Conclusion and Q&A

About: Corinne Zmoos, M.S. CCC-SLP, is a musical speech-language pathologist in Baltimore, Maryland. Her private practice, Messy Happy Music Lab, specializes in neurodivergent language acquisition, musical language therapy, Gestalt Processing, and AAC. As a neurodivergent individual, Corinne deeply understands how music lights up the brains of nontraditional learners and facilitates progress rooted in joy rather than compliance. Corinne presents nationally and internationally her framework for music theory as a critical element and intervention consideration in Gestalt Language Processing. Corinne’s current areas of qualitative inquiry are auditory-motor rhythmic cueing, musical syntax as a vehicle for linguistic syntax, and timbre-experience matching.

This episode of The Gestalt Get Together explores the origins and applications of the term "Gestalt" in psychodynamics, design, and language processing. Host Corinne Smoos delves into the historical roots of Gestalt theory, tracing its development from German psychodynamics in the late 1800s to its current relevance in speech therapy, particularly for Gestalt language processors (GLPs). The episode discusses key Gestalt principles such as similarity, proximity, closure, continuity, figure-ground, and Prägnanz, highlighting how these principles influence perception, learning, and communication. Corinne also examines how these concepts apply to speech therapy, particularly in working with neurodivergent children, and provides practical strategies for leveraging Gestalt principles in clinical practice.

Three Key Questions Students Will Learn:

• How do Gestalt principles shape human perception and influence language processing?
• In what ways do Gestalt language processors interpret and interact with linguistic and visual stimuli differently from analytic processors?
• How can speech-language pathologists apply Gestalt principles to create more effective therapeutic environments and interventions?

Earn 0.1 ASHA CEU for this episode with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=So-What-is-a-Gestalt

About the host: Corinne Zmoos, M.S. CCC-SLP, is a musical speech-language pathologist in Baltimore, Maryland. Her private practice, Messy Happy Music Lab, specializes in neurodivergent language acquisition, musical language therapy, Gestalt Processing, and AAC. As a neurodivergent individual, Corinne deeply understands how music lights up the brains of nontraditional learners and facilitates progress rooted in joy rather than compliance. Corinne presents nationally and internationally her framework for music theory as a critical element and intervention consideration in Gestalt Language Processing. Corinne’s current areas of qualitative inquiry are auditory-motor rhythmic cueing, musical syntax as a vehicle for linguistic syntax, and timbre-experience matching.

Earn 0.1 ASHA CEU for this episode with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=Observational-Learning-Video-Models-and-Gestalt-Language-Pro

In this episode, you’ll meet Jamie Burch, M.A., CCC-SLP. Jamie and Corinne discuss elements of their therapeutic decision-making when programming AAC devices for GLPs. They explain the sensory processing rationale for video models and primary source audio recordings through Bandura’s 1986 Observational Learning framework. Throughout, Jamie expresses the importance of learning from lived autistic experiences, and Corinne calls for more formal research regarding GLPs to explain these lived experiences from a neurological standpoint.

Earn 0.15 ASHA CEUs for this episode with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=Logical-Fallacies-in-Clinical-DecisionMaking-for-GLPs-Part-2

In this part 2 session, Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC-SLP, will continue to explain logical fallacies and how they permeate the consumption of Gestalt Language Processing claims and discourse. You will leave this episode with an understanding of 5 logical fallacies, explain where and why these may emerge related to the dissemination of ideas around GLP, and hopefully start to recognize them in your information consumption.

Earn 0.15 ASHA CEUs for this episode: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=Logical-Fallacies-in-Clinical-DecisionMaking-for-GLPs-PART-1

In this session, Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC-SLP, will explain logical fallacies and how they permeate the consumption of Gestalt Language Processing claims and discourse. You will leave this course with a foundational understanding of 3 common logical fallacies in our field, explain where and why these may emerge as related to disseminating ideas around GLP, and hopefully, start to recognize them in yourself.

Earn 0.15 ASHA CEUs for this episode with Speech Therapy PD: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=Cognitive-Biases-in-Clinical-Decision-Making-for-GLPs

In this session, Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC-SLP, will explain cognitive biases and how they permeate the consumption of Gestalt Language Processing claims and discourse. You will leave this course with a foundational understanding of cognitive biases, explain where and why these may emerge as related to disseminating ideas around GLP, and hopefully start to recognize them in yourself.

Earn 0.15 ASHA CEUs for this episode: https://www.speechtherapypd.com/course?name=Evaluating-the-Evidence-for-NLA-GLP-Using-the-EBP-Triangle

Guest: Kathleen Oppenheimer, MS, CCC-SLP

Join Corinne Zmoos, MS, CCC-SLP, and Kathleen Oppenheimer, MS, CCC-SLP, to discuss the Evidence-Based Practice triangle, define theory v. hypothesis, and what language processing is and isn’t. Kathleen will share more about the importance of understanding reliability and validity in her work and ours as researchers and clinicians.

In this episode, Corinne and Stephanie Boron, M.S., CCC-SLP, discuss their experiences providing neurodiversity-affirming care while being neurodivergent clinicians! Their conversation ventures into the complexities of working with families who are faced with confusing, conflicting recommendations and the depth of care that can happen when clinicians support families in embracing their children's differences.

This episode will equip participants with the knowledge to identify, categorize, and do detective work on their clients’ echolalic communication. Corinne Zmoos will provide a breakdown of the 12 functions of echolalic utterances, tools for doing detective work on what the echoes mean, and an introduction to analyzing musical echolalia. Whether participants work with Gestalt Language Processors or other populations who use echolalia, this course is a perfect addition to their language analysis toolkit.