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’ that we have labeled in the past as ‘typical.’ Gestalt language development is common among both neurotypical and neurodivergent children, and has predictable steps just like ‘typical’ language development. It’s not new; it has been well-verified by early, qualitative research — but it’s gotten lost in the last few decades — and is now being rediscovered by all of us!
The truth is that both styles of language development are typical. In fact, they both lead to original, complex, self-generated language. What’s different is how each begins. 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 follow and document in kids’ development; therefore it has been easier to study. GLPs have a hard time making their long gestalts understood, are so often misunderstood and ignored, and get left out of today’s quantitative (large group) research.
Gestalt Language Processing, Natural Language Acquisition & the State of Research with Marge Blanc
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What’s New
Our GLP Conference 2025 is coming…and it’s going to be even better than last year! 
Here’s what Cathy Schilling has announced! This year’s conference will be new and different! Read on:
“We’re making some exciting changes to keep it fresh, practical, and full of value for our ever growing GLP community 
This year, we’re focusing on evidence – real progress and real stories. We’ve been listening carefully to parents…their advice, their strategies, and their incredible support for their children. This year’s conference will share the evidence of progress our children and young people have made, with insights and ideas that families have found genuinely helpful 
We have amazing speakers from around the world 
We’ve invited a brilliant line-up of speakers, bringing their knowledge and expertise from across the globe. Their insights are going to be a huge inspiration for everyone attending.
For those of you who are new to GLP we’re doing something special this year! Alexandria Zachos from @meaningfulspeech will be sharing a pre-recorded video explaining what we mean by Gestalt Language Processors and the different stages of Natural Language Acquisition.
Everyone who books a ticket will receive this video a month before the conference – so you can watch it, learn, and come feeling confident and ready to learn more about how to support your GLPs.
We’re so excited about this year’s conference and can’t wait to keep building our amazing GLP community together.” 
Got Research?
Question and Answers
Q: “I tried to read the Hutchins et al. article, and figure out what they actually didn’t like about NLA, but it was too hard to figure out. They obviously didn’t understand it, and couldn’t figure out that Stage 2 language consists completely of actual mitigations of Stage 1 language. That’s the ‘raw material’ they were looking for, but apparently didn’t believe was part of NLA. NLA all ‘usage-based,’ so that should’ve answered a lot of their questions.
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