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In the beginning stages, you may notice that your GLP is asking questions. We want to make sure that we always honor and acknowledge all forms of communication, but we also do not want to take all questions literally, as the question may be one of your kiddo’s gestalts. It extremely important to understand the many reasons why a gestalt language processor may be using questions.
In Stages 1 and 2 of gestalt language development, children are mainly using language that they have picked up from media (songs, TV shows, movies, etc.) and/or communication partners. In this stage, your child is not yet producing self-generated sentences, rather, they are using language verbatim (stage 1) or using mitigating partial gestalts (stage 2), therefore, their questions are likely gestalts or mitigations. For this reason, we cannot take questions literally at this stage, instead, we want to do the digging to determine the meaning the child is communicating with us. For example, when your child asks, “are you hungry?”, it is likely that your child is not actually asking if you are hungry. They have picked up this gestalt as they are often asked this around meal or snack time. They are repeating this question verbatim to communicate that they want something to eat.
In later stages of GLP, children may be asking questions because they are unable to access their self-generated language. Self-generated language creates more of a cognitive demand than does gestalts or mitigations. Some reasons children may be unable to access their self-generated language can be fatigue, burnout, not feeling well, and/or dysregulation. During these times, children tend to use language that is easier to access, which is often language from stages 1 or 2.
As we know from previous blogs, asking questions is not something we want to do in earlier stages of GLP, however, it is such a hard habit to break. We often think asking questions is a form of connection and we are often taught to use questions to prompt a child (an approach used in analytic language therapy). This often results in a child being asked too many questions and so they begin asking questions as a way to connect with others.
There are many reasons why you may be hearing your kiddo using questions and as always, it is important that we not only acknowledge our kiddo’s communication, but that we also do the work to discover the true meaning behind the communication.
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SHOLEH SHAHINFAR
M.A. CCC-SLP, RYT
Sholeh Shahinfar is the Founder of Valued Voices, a licensed Speech Language Pathologist, Child Communication Specialist and Certified Oral Motor Therapist. She is passionate about uplifting children’s voices in the world and inspiring self-expression. In her free time, Sholeh embraces a vegan lifestyle, loves going to the ocean, exploring nature with her pup Kobe, practicing yoga, traveling, and spending time with her loved ones.
