Marge Blanc's guest appearances

Marge Blanc

Talking With Tech AAC Podcast

OwlTail

Alexandria Zachos

This week, we present Part 2 of Chris and Rachel's interview with Marge Blanc and Alexandria Zachos, two SLPs who have written and presented about the Natural Language Acquisition framework (NLA) and Gestalt Language Processing. The NLA framework looks at the different ways that people, especially people with autism, develop language. One important aspect of this is “gestalts”which are strings of language that can be long or short, and are often tied to an emotional, meaningful, or dramatic experience. This portion of the interview focuses on Stage 2, 3, and 4 of the NLA framework and how these stages can inform our practices with AAC. To learn more about Stage 1, listen to Part 1 of this episode here.   Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a listener question about putting “too many” symbols on a device versus not having enough symbols on the grid. They also discuss the reaction from some teachers when a student is “playing” with a device, and why it’s not a realistic expectation for a child learning language to completely avoid exploring and playing with their device.   Key ideas this week:   🔑 Stage 2 of the Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) framework is “Mitigated Gestalts”, where the person takes a chunk from one gestalt and a chunk from another gestalt and puts them together. They might also trim down a gestalt to be shorter, for example reducing “Don’t worry, I’ll help you find your Mama” to “Don’t worry”.   🔑 Stage 3 of the NLA framework, “Isolation of the Single Word,” a person who is gestalt language processing is able to recognize words as units and pull the words out of their slots. They also become referential and will begin to reference or point to things.    🔑 According to Marge, there is an impulse when a student gets to Stage Three of the NLA framework to jump to teaching all different kinds of grammar, but at this stage it’s really more about combining words together.  If we go too fast and jump ahead, the student may gain splinter skills while failing to develop the foundational skills necessary to move to Stage 4.   🔑 Stage 4 of the NLA framework is “Beginning Grammar”, which is when we begin to start to see more of the novel utterances and combinations of two to three words together. Stages Five and Six involve complex to advanced grammar.   Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!   Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech

This week, we present Part 2 of Chris and Rachel's interview with Marge Blanc and Alexandria Zachos, two SLPs who have written and presented about the Natural Language Acquisition framework (NLA) and Gestalt Language Processing. The NLA framework looks at the different ways that people, especially people with autism, develop language. One important aspect of this is “gestalts”which are strings of language that can be long or short, and are often tied to an emotional, meaningful, or dramatic experience. This portion of the interview focuses on Stage 2, 3, and 4 of the NLA framework and how these stages can inform our practices with AAC. To learn more about Stage 1, listen to Part 1 of this episode <a href="http://talkingwithtech.org/episodes/blanc-and-zachos-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>. Before the interview, Chris and Rachel discuss a listener question about putting “too many” symbols on a device versus not having enough symbols on the grid. They also discuss the reaction from some teachers when a student is “playing” with a device, and why it’s not a realistic expectation for a child learning language to completely avoid exploring and playing with their device. Key ideas this week: 🔑 Stage 2 of the Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) framework is “Mitigated Gestalts”, where the person takes a chunk from one gestalt and a chunk from another gestalt and puts them together. They might also trim down a gestalt to be shorter, for example reducing “Don’t worry, I’ll help you find your Mama” to “Don’t worry”. 🔑 Stage 3 of the NLA framework, “Isolation of the Single Word,” a person who is gestalt language processing is able to recognize words as units and pull the words out of their slots. They also become referential and will begin to reference or point to things.  🔑 According to Marge, there is an impulse when a student gets to Stage Three of the NLA framework to jump to teaching all different kinds of grammar, but at this stage it’s really more about combining words together.  If we go too fast and jump ahead, the student may gain splinter skills while failing to develop the foundational skills necessary to move to Stage 4. 🔑 Stage 4 of the NLA framework is “Beginning Grammar”, which is when we begin to start to see more of the novel utterances and combinations of two to three words together. Stages Five and Six involve complex to advanced grammar. Visit <a href="http://talkingwithtech.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">talkingwithtech.org</a> to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at <a href="http://patreon.com/talkingwithtech" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">patreon.com/talkingwithtech</a>

Marge Blanc & Alexandria Zachos (Part 2): Supporting Gestalt Language Processing With AAC

This week, we present Part 1 of Chris and Rachel’s interview with Marge Blanc and Alexandria Zachos. Alexandria and Marge are two SLPs who have written and presented nationally on the Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) framework and Gestalt Language Processing. The NLA framework looks at the different ways that people, especially people with autism, develop language. One important aspect of this is “gestalts”which are strings of language that can be long or short, and are often tied to an emotional, meaningful, or dramatic experience. This episode's half of the interview focuses primarily on "delayed echolalia," which is stage one of the Natural Language Acquisition framework.   Before the interview, Chris shares about a previous experience being taught about “learning styles” in grad school (e.g. visual learner, auditory learner) and how "learning styles" were contradicted by later evidence. Chris discusses ASHA’s triangle of evidence-based practice (e.g. what research says, what clients who got the intervention say, and what experts in that area say about the concept) and how he uses it to engage with new ideas and concepts with a balance of skepticism and openness to new ideas.    Key ideas this week:   🔑 Gestalts involve episodic memory as opposed to semantic memory. A person who is gestalt language processing assigns meaning to a whole chunk of sound - it’s the soundtrack from an experience.  For example, a child may pick up the script “To infinity and beyond” watching a movie they really enjoy. Later, when they do another activity they enjoy, they might say “To infinity and beyond!” again.   🔑 According to Marge and Alexandria, we shouldn’t jump stages and start teaching individual words and morphemes to someone in stage one of the NLAF. Because the NLA framework is a developmental process, we wouldn’t want to jump ahead to teaching Step 4 before going to Step 2 and 3. If we do, they may develop splinter skills in some areas without developing important foundational skills and understanding.   🔑 When older children and adults say a shortcut phrase or idiom (e.g. “Autobots roll out” to leave the house), it is probably not a “gestalt”. Gestalts are primarily used by younger children in Stage 1 of the Natural Language Acquisition framework, and are usually tied to emotional, meaningful, or dramatic experiences.   To listen to the previous episode with Alexandria Zachos, go to https://www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/alexandria-zachos    Visit talkingwithtech.org to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes!   Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at patreon.com/talkingwithtech!

This week, we present Part 1 of Chris and Rachel’s interview with Marge Blanc and Alexandria Zachos. Alexandria and Marge are two SLPs who have written and presented nationally on the Natural Language Acquisition (NLA) framework and Gestalt Language Processing. The NLA framework looks at the different ways that people, especially people with autism, develop language. One important aspect of this is “gestalts”which are strings of language that can be long or short, and are often tied to an emotional, meaningful, or dramatic experience. This episode's half of the interview focuses primarily on "delayed echolalia," which is stage one of the Natural Language Acquisition framework. Before the interview, Chris shares about a previous experience being taught about “learning styles” in grad school (e.g. visual learner, auditory learner) and how "learning styles" were contradicted by later evidence. Chris discusses ASHA’s triangle of evidence-based practice (e.g. what research says, what clients who got the intervention say, and what experts in that area say about the concept) and how he uses it to engage with new ideas and concepts with a balance of skepticism and openness to new ideas.  Key ideas this week: 🔑 Gestalts involve episodic memory as opposed to semantic memory. A person who is gestalt language processing assigns meaning to a whole chunk of sound - it’s the soundtrack from an experience.  For example, a child may pick up the script “To infinity and beyond” watching a movie they really enjoy. Later, when they do another activity they enjoy, they might say “To infinity and beyond!” again. 🔑 According to Marge and Alexandria, we shouldn’t jump stages and start teaching individual words and morphemes to someone in stage one of the NLAF. Because the NLA framework is a developmental process, we wouldn’t want to jump ahead to teaching Step 4 before going to Step 2 and 3. If we do, they may develop splinter skills in some areas without developing important foundational skills and understanding. 🔑 When older children and adults say a shortcut phrase or idiom (e.g. “Autobots roll out” to leave the house), it is probably not a “gestalt”. Gestalts are primarily used by younger children in Stage 1 of the Natural Language Acquisition framework, and are usually tied to emotional, meaningful, or dramatic experiences. To listen to the previous episode with Alexandria Zachos, go to <a href="https://www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/alexandria-zachos" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.talkingwithtech.org/episodes/alexandria-zachos</a>  Visit <a href="http://talkingwithtech.org" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">talkingwithtech.org</a> to access previous episodes, resources, and CEU credits that you can earn for listening to TWT episodes! Help us develop new content and keep the podcast going strong! Support our podcast at <a href="http://patreon.com/talkingwithtech" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">patreon.com/talkingwithtech</a>!