#gestalt processing

[autball]

Part 5 of a 5 part series about the ways harmful practices are being made to sound more appealing and how to spot the differences between helpful and harmful approaches.

Communication support is a desperately needed thing for so many autistic people and their families. So unlike some of the other things I’ve posted about this week, this is 100% a worthy goal. Unfortunately, many places that claim they can offer it are not delivering. 

In some cases, they simply don’t have the education to properly support communication needs (I’m looking at you, ABA). Other times they do have the proper education (ie Speech Language Pathologists) but they will gatekeep certain methods of communication, either because they believe harmful myths about them or they haven’t been trained in that particular method. Also, not every SLP knows about Gestalt Language Processing, so even an otherwise great therapist could be missing some information.

So here are some questions to ask when trying to figure out if someone is truly capable of offering well-rounded, neuro-affirming communication support:

Are they more concerned with making the client easier to deal with for others, or are they focused on the client’s rights, needs, and wishes? (We’re looking for the second one.)

Do they address the client directly, or do they speak as if the client isn’t even in the room? (We’re looking for the first one.)

Do they see speech and language as a behavioral thing? (Verbal Behavior and PECS are dead giveaways - and we want a NO.) 

Do they understand that an inability to produce speech has no bearing on a person’s ability to think and feel? (YES✅)

Do they only push for speech, see speech as the end goal, or value speech above all other methods of communication? (NO✅)

Do they honor things like echolalia, pointing to objects, and bringing an adult over to something they want as valid communication? (YES✅)

Do they honor things like refusal to participate, crying, and meltdowns as valid communication? (YES✅)

Do they believe that things like pacifiers, AAC, or responding to “non-functional communication” discourages speech/“functional” communication? (NO✅)

Do they know about Gestalt Language Processing and believe it is a thing? (YES✅)

Do they require “pre-requisites” before they will try alternative communication methods? (NO✅)

Do they require the client to earn time on their AAC device or remove the device when they deem it a distraction, essentially taking away their voice? (NO✅)

Do they know who to send you to if they aren’t personally trained in an approach they think would be more helpful? (YES✅)

Obviously, trying to find someone local to you with all the green flags and no red ones is kind of like trying to find a unicorn for most people. But if you have a choice between two or more therapists, you can at least go with the one who has more right answers and be ready to advocate/educate when needed. 

If you literally have only one option available to you and it’s not a good one, you can either be ready to advocate at every turn or just choose not to use their services. Yeah, that’s allowed! Not every autistic person needs speech therapy, and not all communication support has to be directly administered by a professional. You as the parent or caregiver will play a huge role in supporting your person with their communication needs, and luckily there are online resources and virtual trainings that can help you do that.

P.S. What’s the difference between PECS and picture cards, you ask? PECS is a whole ABA-based program that uses a limited set of picture cards and should be avoided for several reasons. Meanwhile, plain old picture cards are something that can be made and used by anyone without any specific program.

P.P.S. Zero debates about the legitimacy of Spelling to Communicate (S2C) or Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) will be entertained (translation - it will be deleted so don’t waste your time).

[whatsupwalnut]

Today at recess my student was under the bigtoy and kept saying something like "undersea game" and finally i heard "it's leaking" and sure enough something was dripping down and that's how we figured out another student had overflowed their diaper which is functional gestalt language processing in action thank you!!!

[honeydrop-sweetheart]

Sometimes, my brain comes up with a certified banger or a truly creative fantasy. Sometimes, it's: ✨ "Yeet of this can, for this bitch empty." ✨

[limestoner]

I think I see what people meant when they called me a “little parrot” when I was a kid. It was a comment I only remember because I heard it so often. I think I understood the metaphor generally and understood it to mean that I repeated things all the time.

But no, they meant I literally convert sound I hear into an echo from my mouth. I would stim just like this parrot.

This scene is really relatable. I know I’m supposed to make small talk. So I follow that script. But before I knew how to do that, this is what I naturally would do. I wouldn’t say, “Do you like this station? It’s my favorite!”

I would say, “97X. BaaaaaM. The Future of Rock and Roll.”

It’s easier for me to retell a story by just outputting my recording, but that’s not how people expect a story. It doesn’t come naturally to me to think of social questions to show that I am enjoying spending time with someone. It comes naturally to express feelings of excitement, tranquility, joy by telling a story through pure sound.

My audio track doesn’t have separate channels for music, speech, and noise.

I remember watching a documentary about parrots when I was a kid. My favorite part was the way parrots learned language.

Probably because I finally saw someone who communicated like I do.

[whatsupwalnut]

yes! it's a sign of gestalt language processing, which often uses delayed echolalia as an accessible means of communication

and you can’t blame me for saying some odd shit bc i haven’t become accustomed to mimicking your speech patterns yet. that’s not my problem

[loriglessner]

The Pieces of My Personal Collage History: Fragments & Gestalt

[dammit-tazmuir]

For all the things this fandom refuses to believe and chalks up to John's lies, the thing that baffles me to see so many believe without question is the idea of Perfect Lyctorhood.

Guys. Guys, there is no Perfect Lyctorhood.

Or at best, if there hypothetically could be, it's nothing we've ever seen. Paul is the closest thing and I know a lot of you would not consider Paul perfect. John did not achieve Perfect Lyctorhood, and it wasn't even his idea to claim he did. A quarter of NtN extensively details that he didn't.

The old Lyctors didn't know what Alecto was. John definitely told them more than he would have liked to, because of course she doesn't lie and is too obviously inhuman to hide it fully. But if they knew everything, Mercy wouldn't doubt that Alecto ever had a genetic code; she would know she didn't, or that any genes she might've had were made from John's own blood and bone.

Because they didn't know what she actually was or what actually happened (foreshadowed too by Mercy's "if you had lied about anything else" lines, when actually he did), they drew the wrong conclusion. They assumed something different in his process allowed Alecto to persist. But we now know the truth is that Alecto was simply too big to consume. She didn't die because she was already limitless. This will never apply to another human. But he lets them believe their conclusion because he thinks it's better and easier to talk his way out of than them figuring out the real truth.

It does remain possible that Anastasia and Samael were genuinely on the cusp of that breakthrough, but I honestly doubt it. That was another conclusion drawn by the Lyctors as a follow-up to the previous wrong one, and when John answers, he visibly hesitates. It feels like he's once again going, "....Sssure, yes, let's go with that." I don't know what Samael and Anastasia WERE on the verge of. Maybe they would have become gestalt like Paul, and the possibility of just one dying was why Pal begged Cam "don't look back", and John was afraid of the power they'd achieve (could Paul have greater thalergy than a normal Lyctor?) and/or of just the others seeing a different process and getting mad at him.

AND/OR, ACTUALLY? Especially if their attempt was one of the earlier ones (around the middle rather than the end), but even if it wasn't: I think a Paul situation has a STRONG possibility of being exactly what happened. John's most outright lies are usually the ones other people tell that he just nods along with. When it's from himself, if it's not feigned incompetence, he usually goes for half-truths and misleading truths. He says Anastasia panicked halfway through and if he hadn't stepped in they would have both died. I think it's very possible that John panicked halfway through as he realized what they were doing, and that it's genuinely true they would have both died— in the same way Camilla and Palamedes both died, to create someone new.

And we know how much John hates change. How desperately John needs to keep his specific people close. What are the odds he was so afraid of losing both of them and being left with a new person he didn't know, couldn't predict, and couldn't easily control with them having a whole Lyctor's power and maybe more? Especially if Cyth and Loveday, Cassy and Nigella, Cyrus and Valancy, Ulysses and Titania, maybe even G1deon and Pyrrha— if any others hadn't undergone the process yet, and there was a chance they'd see Samastastia and decide that was the path they wanted too. If he thought this meant he might lose all his friends instead of only the less favored half.

Either way, though, based on everything we know, there is no simple soul swap that results in dual immortality. Even John and Alecto involve a fusion of megasoul. "You and she are one." (This is also likely how a seemingly real facet of John could talk to Harrow in Alecto's dream.) And we've seen through NtN, the soul longs for the body. The body longs for the soul. A body housing a different soul doesn't last long, even when those souls ARE semi connected. A body even temporarily renting space to a foreign soul is a massive strain, like Cam carrying Pal.

Lyctorhood inherently involves death and consumption and acting against nature. It is the indelible sin. It's possible that Grand Lysis avoids that sin by making it about mutual death, about giving instead of taking, but it's still bittersweet at best. I highly doubt we're going to see a perfect solution that fixes everything, at least via more necromancy, because that's not the kind of series this is. It's messy, beautiful in its flaws, embracing the understanding that life is change and things can never be exactly as they were, and can rarely be exactly what you want, and letting go and moving on are necessary parts of life eventually.

Don't misunderstand! I do think Gideon will either be resurrected (perhaps the last true one ever) or there will be another way for her and Harrow to happily be together. In Gideon's case, there was nothing natural about her death, and the decision to say "no" is a rejection of the system that led to it.

I just also think the odds of rewriting the laws of life and death entirely are more likely than Lyctorhood But With No Consequences. It always has consequences. There is no Perfect Lyctorhood, but there's something good on the horizon, whatever form it takes. After all...

"There are more worlds than this. Come with us. We are the love that is perfected by death, but even death will be no more. Death can also die. There's still time, Ianthe. Time for you and for Naberius Tern."

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Word List: Psychology

more psychological concepts as reference for your poem/story

Telepathic dream - a dream in which one appears to gain insight or information about a person or event despite not having access to the relevant information in waking life; described by Sigmund Freud.

Thought echoing - (or écho des pensées) an auditory hallucination in which an individual hears their own thoughts repeated in spoken form.

Trait rumination - a tendency to focus attention on negative thoughts and emotions, which is associated with longer and more severe episodes of depression or anxiety.

Twilight state - a state of clouded consciousness in which the individual is temporarily unaware of their surroundings, experiences fleeting auditory or visual hallucinations, and responds to them by performing irrational acts, such as undressing in public, running away, or committing violence. The disturbance occurs primarily in temporal lobe epilepsy, dissociative reactions, and alcohol intoxication. On regaining normal consciousness, individuals usually report that they felt they were dreaming and have little or no recollection of their actual behavior.

Universality of emotions - the finding that certain emotional expressions, appraisals, and manifestations are the same or highly similar across cultures and societies.

Waking dream - an episode of dreamlike visual imagery experienced when one is not asleep. The term is sometimes applied to hallucinations, religious visions, and the like.

Windmill illusion - an illusion of motion of rotating objects, such as windmills and automobile wheels, which appear to reverse direction intermittently.

Xenoglossy - in parapsychology, the ostensible ability of a person to speak or write in a language that is entirely unknown to them.

Yantra - a visual pattern on which attention is focused during concentrative meditation.

Zeigarnik effect - the tendency for interrupted, uncompleted tasks to be better remembered than completed tasks. Some theorists relate this phenomenon to certain gestalt principles of organization but at the level of higher mental processing (e.g., memory), rather than at the level of pure perception; described in 1927 by Bluma Zeigarnik.

Source ⚜ More: References ⚜ Part 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

on tumblr lot more people know about it which great! that improve life of all AAC users. but pretty much with anything disability/developmental disability space on social media (which need certain amount of cognitive/intellectual & language abilities be on even if have support), good majority you see be teen & adult people who already literate learn language via speech n write *first* n then *independently* learn AAC base on it *later*.

especially symbol based AAC, but all AAC, is new system n hard n take long time learn even when you literate & not moderately severely cognitively disabled. but also, “literate teen/adult independent learn AAC” not at all full face of AAC user community.

as in like. experience of theirs. not universal. independently motivated & able to look up different AAC options different AAC apps, compare n contrast. download app n immediately know how to use, or able figure out by self. first time use app n may be clunky n slow, but make sentence on first try. need learn AAC, but most of that learning is for where words are (if button based), how exist as AAC user in public with confidence, etc. those all valid but not true for everyone who need AAC, especially not developmentally disabled children (& some adults) with complex communication needs.

most developmentally disabled children (n some adults) w complex communication needs who need AAC, can’t just hand them tablet with symbol based AAC app or text to speech AAC app n then wait for magic. many of them developmentally delayed in way, not taught in way that fit them (e.g. gestalt language processors), n their language abilities behind peers, so they can’t read, can’t spell, can’t grammar, etc.

some of them need learn where word is not by read word, sometimes not even by understand symbol, instead is by other people press button n hear sound n associate that with meaning n location on AAC n symbol associate with it. in other words, they learning language alongside AAC.

for some their learn process look like, learn how use AAC say one word. n then much later, try make two word message, “want food” “go school.” “two word message” incredibly common goal for many these developmentally disabled children, teens, n even adults, that is something rare n truly extraordinary for that person that need be celebrated.

for others it look like learn by phrase (gestalt), then slowly break it down into smaller phrase n chunks n finally single words.

many of them babble (click random/seemingly random buttons on high tech device, stim with it, etc). but ultimately, won’t be able learn all by self. need be taught, see you accidentally spill water n crying, maybe you “feel” “sad”, n when that happen you “need” “help” from adult. need learn AAC by adults around them constantly model with it, constantly use it in conversation, show them how use. because they learning language along side it.

but also some of them don’t know what this thing in front of them (AAC… device, low tech boards or picture cards, etc) is. don’t know what communication is or you should do that. don’t know people exist who you should communicate to & with. heard many parents n SLP say they try model all time, try all kind of stuff, but child just not seem interested in it, don’t look at it, don’t touch it, don’t use it.

people who use AAC, not all them struggle with only speech. some them struggle with language, with intellectual/cognitive. some of them very developmentally delayed.

n some people, too disabled learn or use AAC. yeah, they exist.

for people who cannot use / cannot only use speech to be understood, AAC can be life changing. but is so much more complex thing. AAC still not as widely used n accepted n properly taught n supported as should, some parents n professionals n schools still many pushback n refuse. but sometimes answer to “have you tried AAC for them” is “yes, but they need long time n lots help to learn n we not very far yet even though spent long time on it” or “yes, but they simply not show interest even after constant model” or “god, wish can, but insurance only cover if show some amount of communication competence n ability use AAC, while only give 1 month trial, which simply not enough time” (wide spread thing that happen) or “yes. many types. it not work.”

for many AAC users & AAC user-to-be, it not as simple as “be handed AAC n check back in while they figure out by self”

[yesthattoo]

I! Will be presenting on neurodiversity-affirming AAC, gestalt language processing, and a a decent chunk of stuff about part-time AAC use/AAC use by speaking autistic folks on September 28, 2025.

This will be for the Northwest Augmentative Communication Society, and it is online.

I am both an Autistic part-time AAC user and an AAC researcher.

It costs $90 for professionals and $45 for anyone else. The promo code of NWACScode2025 gets you 15% off of the applicable price.

Open to anyone interested in AAC and/or communicative scripting/echolalia/gestalt language processing.

[limestoner]

Thinking about why I have trouble distinguishing between different people’s voices on the phone, pick out a single person’s voice in a busy room, and have trouble remembering who told me what.

From infancy, my brain has a “file” on every word I have ever heard. Some files are fat: “the”, “me”, “and”. Some files are thin: got sidetracked trying to find the spelling of a word I remember hearing in a spelling bee. It sounded like /kaɲkılieɾəd/.

And that’s an example of how I seem to store every production of a word I ever hear. The way the sounds fit together. The way it can grammatically fit together with other words. Each word has “receptors” that only work with specified other words around them.

I remember feeling drawn to the crisp sounds in German: “sch,” “ß”, “w” as /v/. I still feel so comfortable — no, happy forming them.

When I talk to someone, my brain seems to:

1. Record a whole conversational turn.

2. Break down into sentences.

3. Break down into words.

4. Break down into sounds.

5. Add information acquired from new productions to the language files. Like the X Files but probably not at all really. I did it again. I can’t hear the meaning over the words.

6. Now I have new data points to add to rules about pronunciation, spelling, meanings, and grammatical construction.

7. This all happens instantly and without me thinking about it. What I do have to think about is making sure that I am mirroring the other person’s communication, and a good way to do that is by using the words they use and furthering the conversation by adding more.

8. But my brain does not seem to keep track of where the line is for “on topic” or “off topic.” I’m building with the same words but there is some other meaning that I can’t seem to access.

9. Meanwhile, I’m struggling to see what someone’s facial expression is telling me. I find facial expressions to be hard to distinguish, but when I make a social error and some has a strong reaction, it scares me. It’s like I can’t see faces unless it’s bad. It can take several seconds or more of “staring” at someone to tell if I recognize them or not and who they might be. I feel bad for not knowing who they are, so I’m hesitant to ask.

10. I like it when people who aren’t in my small inner circle remind me who they are when they approach. It helps my brain “set up” for the conversation.

11. If I hear or read: “We need to talk,” “Could you please call me?” “I have to tell you something later,” or the like, I’m filled with anxiety. I can’t prepare for the conversation, so I know I’ll take a long time forming responses, be entirely unable to modulate my tone or emotions, and may melt or shut down entirely, or leave the situation before I do.

12. And then sometimes I get to that situation and the person is like, “I just wanted to tell you that I couldn’t find that hot sauce you like.” Now I still have to craft an emotionally appropriate response that is calm even though my nerves are screaming because I had to be ready for ANYTHING.

13. These things happen fast enough that I’m usually able to come up with something satisfactory to respond with, but it feels like physical exertion in my nervous system. Too many unexpected communication situations and I lose my ability to communicate.

14. I like theatre because I have the words. I have the stage directions and blocking. I can enjoy an interaction with others and be in the moment because I don’t have to constantly check my words for associated physical behaviors that I have minimal or no control over.

15. When I combine words together, my face and body are trying to follow along, but they don’t always match. I don’t notice this, but others do.

I can still hear the different ways I’ve heard words pronounced and used. But because I was expending all my effort to make sure I look and sound “normal,” I can come away from conversations not knowing who I spoke to in any meaningful way. I love being on the stage, whether acting or lecturing. I can call up words I need across languages. I’m filled with fear when I know that back and forth social interaction lies ahead.

[tidyturnip]

Oh, you're a super-processor for language! Most people can only handle one language stream at a time, regardless of sensory modality, but some people have such elegant and efficient language processing that they can juggle multiple language tasks. Yes, it's juggling - while it may feel simultaneous, your brain is just very cleverly alt-tabbing between the two but somehow providing the effect of consistent stream of consciousness for both at once.

Can you talk to someone while typing or writing something completely unrelated? Can you listen to two busy radio channels at once (like, one in each ear)? Did you know you would make a very good dispatcher or air traffic controller, if you're considering a career switch?

Sorry, I find it a really fascinating phenomenon because my auditory processing is so garbage I can baaaaarely handle one language stream. My ears in particular (actually the brain structures in involved in auditory processing) are so awful at it that if you present me with written words, my brain immediately stops even trying to interpret intelligible language from the sounds and it's like the tower of babel. I have to be careful with my language resources in "high-competing conditions" (aka, lots of background noise, distracting visual language cues, etc) or else I will just forget that I can't hear people. Since I've always been this way, I do that grew-up-deafish "mmhm! yeah!" thing and absorb 0% of the information. The best I can do is now be aware of it and ask for things to be repeated while I focus as hard as I can.

okay, settle an argument for me. I'm being told it's weird to listen to an audiobook while simultaneously reading a different book. Do you do this? Like, audiobook in your headphones, unrelated book being read at the same time, not just alternating which you're working on by listening to a chapter, then reading a different chapter.

[nextweekendormaybefridaynight]

I want the Constructicons to rail Prowl so hard he's sparked. Like one day he's just existing, then BAM the next his calipers are in desperate need of repair and he's got like five sparklings beginning to flare in his spark chamber while his forge struggles to process the gallons of transfluid it was pumped full of. Of course he's stupid for a day or so afterwards—he literally just got fucked Pregnant⁵—but when his processor starts working he's immediately a mix of flustered and enraged while the Constructicons are doting on him. He's going to be such a good carrier ❤️

Edit: Changed it to Five, he's gonna be carrying a whole new gestalt

[thedemonslament]

waaaaaah thank you so much for making adanna intersex!! <3333 i love love love love loveeeee it when people depict all of the complexities that can come with transition and being trans!!! the fact that it is often such a nonlinear process with lots of loops and self-rediscovery!!! i love your ocs!!! i love trans people! i love intersex people! thank you!!!! :DDD (your comic is so cool!!!!)

Yessss gender and sex are a complicated spectrum. I don't think I have a single trans character who's gender or transition was a straightforward process.

Also I'm not intersex myself, but I realised that I rarely see intersex characters depicted in mainstream media so it was difficult to find references (that wasn't fetishistic). The only ones I can remember are Stevonnie (Steven Universe), Kainé (Nier Replicant/Gestalt) and Ryo (Devilman Crybaby). But I'm happy you're happy anon!!!

[mrzuddie]

And I'm finished! I forgot to also mention then that this comic would look simple, even static in some way and yet I like what came out!

Cloud ate some Gestalt (not whole) and regurgitated their organs and bones, and hid half of body somewhere...

AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR CLOUD!

(First mention was here and second here)

This Ara was accidentally created defective, this is shown in the reversed colors of her body, limbs that should be dark to light and light to dark. It's later revealed that it affected not only her physical characteristics, but her mental ones as well. Takes the same work as other Aras.

Cloud has a "demonic", riotous, crazy personality, when she has time, she deliberately provokes Replikas to brawl with her, especially Stars with Storches, and doesn't fear for herself at such moments. If she's suddenly punched in the solar plexus, outwardly she'll grimace, but somewhere inside she'll exclaim, "OH YES, IT FEELS GOOD, I NEED MORE". This process gives her pleasure, as well as the process of inflicting damage to other Replikas, but she tries not to overdo it when she organizes such an event, at the same time making sure that it doesn't come to dire consequences, at least not to lethal outcome, which can't be said about the innocent Gestalts... Cloud kills them without ceremony and as rapidly as possible, it happens rarely and at night so that no one can see, and afterwards she decides what to do with the corpses, in most cases she eats them (sometimes barbarically, sometimes more neatly and elegantly, directly slicing them with a knife and sticking with a fork). Her favorite areas are neck, shoulder joint, avoids eating brain and liver. Knows how to clean bones and sometimes saves them as trophies.

When it was revealed that Cloud was causing Gestalts to disappear, she was decommissioned (thanks to numerous complaints from various Replikas, including Zenbar's one). Despite the fact that there were only a small number of disappearances, she didn't live very long (415 cycles).

Later, after Cloud's death, one particular Gestalt decided to embellish, horrify, hyperbolize her life story by saying that in addition to adults, she also killed children, this startled and shocked the minds of other Gestalts, this story began to spread rapidly among them and thus became a kind of urban legend.

I'll add one more fact - she sometimes has fun with drinking chifir. Briefly about chifir: it's a very, VERY strong, bitter (preferably black) tea made from tea leaves (it can be made from bags too), similar in effects (x2) to coffee, it's better to drink it without sugar because with can cause a sharp vasoconstriction of blood vessels. Oi, I remembered, her nickname was given by Zalbi (original name: ARAR - R15).

The last thing is pretty random, I thought it was a nice idea to draw her in 2yk outfit with a huge silly scythe.

Normal quality:

[whatsupwalnut]

It rules that no one has seen happy endings bc its the source of easily 50% of my verbal gestalts