Stories
NLA success stories are abundant, and rich in variety. Each one includes food-for-thought, and lessons for us all: seasoned NLA practitioners, SLPs who are just learning about NLA, university students, parents, other professionals, families and extended families. Our library of stories is housed in the International section because they are not only told in English, but in other languages. Closed captioning for stories in languages other than English are not correct at this time. Stand by!
Our first stories are told by Isabel, an SLP in Belgium, Paulina, an SLP in Canada, and Kiran, an SLP in India. Stay tuned here, as our bank of stories is destined to grow!
And the number of stories in different languages will grow as well.
Stories.Isabel.1.Ben.English
Isabel would like to share a a story about a little GLP student. At the time when he started school at 3 years old, no-one knew that he couldn’t generate his own language. It wasn’t obvious. Why? He had been diagnosed with a genetic disorder, but he was very fluent and intelligible, more than most 3 year olds. By the time Isabel found out about NLA and GLP, this little boy was the first child who came in her mind. Let us tell you why.
English
Stories.Isabel.1.Ben.Dutch
Isabel deelt hier graag een verhaal over een jong gestalt taal verwerkertje. Op het moment dat hij op school startte was hij drie jaar oud, en niemand wist dat hij eigen geen eigen taal kon bouwen. Het was niet zo evident dit op te merken. Waarom? He had een diagnose van een genetische afwijking maar ondanks dat sprak hij erg vloeiend en was heel verstaanbaar, meer dan de meeste kinderen van zijn leeftijd. Tegen de tijd dat ze over NLA en gestalt taalverwerking leerde, was dit jongetje de eerste waar ze aan dacht. Laten we eens gaan kijken waarom!
Dutch
Stories.Paulina.1.SpongeBob
In Paulina’s first story, she describes a little one who used English and Hindi, and especially loved scripts from SpongeBob. She describes how he progressed from not being acknowledged at all, to Stage 3, and beginning Stage 4 after a year. Paulina was able to reassure his family that the incorrect grammar of Stage 4 is a mark of self-generated language.
Español
English
Stories.Paulina.2
Paulina describes her first assessment session with a four-year-old from a mono-lingual English-speaking family who was described as not talking. But Paulina had asked the right questions of his mom to make their first session successful. Paulina was able to connect with her new client by using his gestalt as he’d tried to match the intonation of a counting video in Spanish: ‘uno.dos.tres.cuatro.’ Their immediate connection got their therapeutic relationship off to a flying start!
Español
English
Stories.Isabel.2.humming.English
This is a story about a girl with a special musical ear. She wasn’t an obvious GLP, as she didn’t talk or use her voice in any way until …. we recognized intonational patterns she was using when she was vocalizing. She was so happy we acknowledged the songs and the contexts she was sharing. As she has difficulties in motor speech, she couldn’t share more than intonation. She works so hard and she’s grown so much. Listen to her story…
English
Stories.Isabel.2.humming.Dutch
Dit is een verhaal over een meisje met een bijzonder muzikaal gehoord. Ze was geen overduidelijke gestalt taalverwerker, omdat ze nog niet praatte en haar stem nog niet bewust gebruikte tot … we bepaalde intonatiepatronen herkenden die ze gebruikte als ze vocaliseerde. Ze was zo blij dat we haar liedjes erkenden samen met de context die ze ermee deelde. Omdat ze problemen heeft met spraakmotoriek, kon ze niet meer delen dan alleen intonatie. Ze werkt zo hard en ze is al zo hard gegroeid! Luister mee naar haar verhaal….
Dutch
Stories.Kiran.1.humming.English
Kiran’s first story illustrates the flexibility of language that is acquired naturally, in this case language that we sometimes think we have to teach children. Learning about NLA only recently, Kiran learned not only the value of not interfering with a child’s natural process, but how a very new NLA practitioner can support other SLPs because she is learning from her clients! Starting in Mumbai, NLA has a chance to grow in India! Please take a look!
English
Stories.Kiran.2.music. Hindi
किरन हमें एक ऐसे बच्चे के बारे में बताती है जो उसके पास आई क्योंकि उसकी भाषा का विकास और नहीं बढ़ रहा था।
इस चार साल की बच्ची को ALP जैसे सिखाया गया था। जब किरन ने एक गुड़िया से खेलते हुए बात की और उस बच्ची ने उसके शब्द तुरंत दोहराये, किरन ने उसके माता पिता से सवाल पूछना शुरू किये ये जानने के लिए की क्या वो GLP है। माता पिता को आश्चर्य हुआ की किरन उनसे सही सवाल पूछ रही थी और किरन को उनकी बच्ची के बारे में इतना कैसे मालुम था। सुन लीजिये ।
Hindi
Stories.Kiran.2.music. English
Kiran tells a story about her new client who came to her because she had plateaued in her language development when she was treated as an analytic processor. When this four-year-old immediately echoed Kiran’s playful words to a baby doll, Kiran began asking parents questions to see if the little girl was a GLP. Parents were amazed that Kiran was asking the right questions, and wondered how Kiran already seemed to know her! Take a listen…
English
Stories.Liz.1. Francais
Dans cette première histoire de Liz, elle décrit une jeune fille et son cheminement du développement du langage par le gestalt pour l’apprentissage de l’anglais et ensuite le français. Elle est passée à travers les étapes de l’apprentissage naturel du langage d’elle-même ayant seulement besoin d’un peu de support afin de passer en peu plus de temps à certains stades pour « libérer » plus de mots à une utilisation flexible et di-verse. Elle communique maintenant au stade 3 en français et elle utilise un niveau de grammaire spontanée en anglais au stade 5.
Francais
Stories.Liz.1.English
In Liz’s first story, she describes a young girl’s gestalt lan-guage development journey to learning both English and then French while figuring out the stages of Natural Lan-guage Acquisition mostly on her own and assistance only needed to help her pause at certain stages to free all her words for flexible use. She now uses English grammar at Stage 5 and French is at Stage 3.
English
Stories: Raghad.1.English
Raghad is an SLT in Palestine, working in an elementary school with students ages 6 and older. When she recognized that her efforts to support analytic language development in her autistic students wasn’t working, she Googled ‘echolalia’ and discovered NLA! Marge’s first NJACE webinar began her journey with one student who fit the profile of a GLP perfectly. Here is the story of their adventure from Stage 1 to emerging Stage 4! As she says, this student moved rapidly through the first three stages because he was “just waiting for someone to ‘get’ him.” Raghad did!
English
Stories: Raghad.1.Arabic
رغد، هي معالجة لغة وتواصل تعمل مع أطفال مع تشخيص توحد في المرحلة الابتدائية من عمر 6 سنوات. عندما شعرت بأن المجهود الذي تبذله في دعم تطور اللغة عند الأطفال مع تشخيص التوحد بطريقة التطور التحليلية لم يعد يجدي نفعاً، بدأت بالبحث عن مصطلح “الاكولاليا”. بعد أن وجدت رغد أول ندوة نُشرت لمارج والتي عرّفتها على مصطلح “التطور الطبيعي للغة”، بدأت رحلتها مع أحد الطلاب والذي كان يلائم بروفايل تطور اللغة الجشطالتي بشكل مثالي.
تتحدث رغد هنا عن رحلتها من المرحلة الأولى وحتى المرحلة الرابعة! كما تقول، انتقل الطالب بشكل سريع في المراحل الثالث الأولى وذلك لأنه كان “ينتظر شخص يفهمه”. ورغد كانت هذا الشخص!
Arabic
Stories.Lara.1. Italiano
BUONGIORNO SONO LARA MATERA SONO UNA LOGOPEDISTA FORMATA IN NLA E INSEGNANTE DIR FLOORTIME, CREDO MOLTO IN UN APPROCCIO RELAZIONALE E MI PIACE DEFINIRMI LOGOPEDISTA RELAZIONALE.
QUANDO HO CONOSCIUTO NLA HO SUBITO PENSATO A LEONARDO.
LEONARDO È UN BAMBINO NEURODIVERGENTE È ARRIVATO NEL MIO STUDIO A 5 ANNI DOPO QUALCHE ANNO DI TERAPIA COGNITIVO COMPORTAMENTALE.
I GENITORI DOPO AVER FATTO UN CORSO DIR DECIDONO DI INTRAPRENDERE UN PERCORSO DIVERSO PER IL LORO FIGLIO E CONTATTANO IL NOSTRO CENTRO LIBERAMENTE SITO A CRESCENTINO.
LEONARDO SI PRESENTAVA A TERAPIA CANTANDO IN CONTINUAZIONE, PARLAVA MA SENZA COMUNICARE, NON ERA COINVOLTO NELLA RELAZIONE E NON RIUSCIVA A SINTONIZZARSI CON L’ALTRO.
LE TERAPIE INIZIANO A CADENZA SETTIMANALE CON UN GENITORE SEMPRE PRESENTE IN STANZA CHE VENIVA COINVOLTO NEI GIOCHI E NELL’ESPERIENZE CHE LEONARDO FACEVA, LA PRIORITÀ ERA CHE RIMANESSE CALMO REGOLATO COINVOLTO IN UNA RELAZIONE CON LA POSSIBILITÀ DI APRIRE E CHIUDERE CIRCOLI COMUNICATIVI.
DOPO UN ANNO IL MIO INTERVENTO SUBISCE UNA SVOLTA IMPORTANTE PERCHÈ DECIDO DI INTRAPRENDERE UN ALTRO PERCORSO FORMATIVO, DECIDO DI INIZIARE A SEGUIRE VARI CORSI DELLA DOTTORESSA MARGE BLANC PROFESSIONISTA RICERCATRICE E FONDATRICE DEL NLA, SCOPRO IL SITO COMMUNICATION DEVELPOPMENT CENTER. COM E LE MIE TERAPIA RIABILITATIVE SUBISCONO UN CAMBIAMENTO PROFONDO, QUESTO APPROCCIO MI HA PERMESSO DI CAPIRE COME POTER AIUTARE LEONARDO E I SUO GESTALT COMPOSTI DA LUNGHEZZE VARIABILI DA CANZONI O DA COPIONI DI CARTONI FILM PUBBLICITÀ TALVOLTA POCO COMPRENSIBILI.
HO INIZIATO A RICONOSCERE I VARI STADI DESCRITTI DAL ALN ACQUISIZIONE NATURALE DEL LINGUAGGIO E SONO RIUSCITA AD ENTRARE SEMPRE DI PIU IN QUESTO APPROCCIO CHE HA COME FONDAMENTO L’ELABORAZIONE GESTALTICA, ESSA È È COMUNE SIA NELLO SVILUPPO NEUROTIPICO CHE IN QUELLO NEURODIVERGENTE E PUÒ COESISTERE CON L’ELABORAZIONE ANALITICA DEL LINGUAGGIO.
LA SINTESI È CHE LEO HA INIZIATO LA SUA SCALATA NELL’ACQUISIZIONE LINGUISTICA È ABBIAMO INIZIATO A VIAGGIARE PERCORRENDO I DIVERSI STADI, LA STRADA DA PERCORRERE INSIEME è ANCORA LUNGA E LA STORIA DI LEONARDO CONTINUA.
GRAZIE A MARGE E ALLE SUE COLLEGHE CHE MI HANNO PERMESSO DI APPRENDERE E IMPARARE TUTTO QUESTO.
Italiano
Stories.Lara.1. English
I am a speech therapist named Lara Matera. I am trained in NLA and the DIR Floortime approach. I believe in a relational approach and consider myself a relational speech therapist.
I want to share the story of a neurodivergent child named Leonardo who came to my studio at 5 years old. He had previously received cognitive behavioral therapy. After his parents took a DIR Floortime course, they decided to take a different path for their child and contacted our private practice in Crescentino.
When Leonardo started therapy, he sang all the time and used long gestalts . He struggled to engage in relationships and couldn’t tune in to others. The therapies began with weekly sessions, with parents always present in the room. They actively participated in the activities and experiences Leonardo was engaging in. The main focus was to keep him calm and regulated, involved in a relationship with the ability to open and close communicative circles.
After a year, I decided to take a different training path and began following various courses by Marge Blanc, a research professional and founder of the NLA approach. I discovered the website communicationdevelopmentcenter.com, and my rehabilitation therapies underwent a profound change. This approach allowed me to understand how I could help Leonardo, who communicated through variable lengths of song or imitation of cartoons, films, and advertisements. I began to recognize the various stages described by the NLA and enjoyed this approach, I figured out how to help him because I understood what a gestalt language processor was.
In summary, Leonardo has started to make progress in his language acquisition, and we have begun to travel through the different stages.
The road ahead is still long, and Leonardo’s story continues.
I am grateful to Marge and her colleagues, who have enabled me to learn all this.
