Language development is a complex process.
And we know how important it is for parents, caregivers, and educators to ensure that children receive rich and varied sensory experiences in order to promote language development.
When we understand how dysregulation can affect our ability to perceive and comprehend the world around us, we can provide better support to our children to help them develop their communication skills.
And that is why it is crucial to be able to spot the signs of dysregulation in gestalt processors.
Here are 4 signs that a gestalt processor might be dysregulated:
Nonspeaking - when children are dysregulated, they cannot access their higher level communication skills. If a child is not speaking or intermittently speaking, it could be because they are dysregulated.
Use of emotional scripts - the child may have specific scripts they use when they are dysregulated. And scripts are not always literal so we have to do the detective work to determine what the script means and the context in which they used it. For example I had a client that always said “that’s a GREEN apple” whenever he meant no or stop.
Reverting back to earlier stages - if a child suddenly reverts back to using earlier stage utterances despite being in a later stage on average, it could be that they are struggling to access their higher level language due to their dysregulation.
Plateauing or making minimal progress - There is not set time a child will be in each stage of gestalt language development.. However, if a child is not making progress, making very slow progress, or seems to have plateaued, it's important to make sure we are supporting their sensory needs and providing them with sensory rich experiences.
By understanding how dysregulation can impact our ability to perceive and make sense of the world around us, we can better support our kids in increasing their self-generated language.
If you want more information on these 4 ways to spot dysregulation in gestalt processors, check out our Youtube Show: Making the Shift Episode 49